[C19fan]

I remember how shocked I was when seeing how labor intensive and cheap car washes were in SoCal. This is from someone moving from the NE Corridor out West. My wife experienced the opposite when she moved from West to East. She went to a full service wash thinking this was still CA. The costs were two to three times as much and the quality of the work was abysmal. I do the automated wash and self vacuum route living back in the East.

[tbw2]

You’ll see more “washeros” and more automation to offset the $15 minimum wage.

[bgill]

A decade ago, I was subbing at $5/hr with no tips or overtime so didn’t have the money to have my car washed by anyone but myself. No sympathy for any of those crimillegals.

January can’t come quick enough. Fine their employers and deport them back where they came from.

[dfwgator]

You might not ever get rich, ha Let me tell you it’s better than digging a ditch

[Scott from the Left Coast]

The increase in the minimum wage has a direct relationship to the increase in illegal immigration - the cheap labor express. More and more of that end of the economy goes black, off the books, with illegals providing the labor well under the legal minimum.

[LostPassword]

Minimum wage is still $0. That gap between the minimum and what an employer is allowed to pay is $15.

The gap between the minimum, $0, and what it costs an employer to hire you is actually over $20 (this was in 2010)

Instead of asking "do I deserve $15/hour" a lot of people should be asking "am I worth $20/hour"

[heartwood]

Glad I never got my car washed commercially, because I didn’t know there was a tip-dependent wage.

Ten years after my children went to a local summer camp, I found out from a teenager who was a counselor there that he had earned way under minimum wage - the camp had told us nothing about tips being part of the counselors’ wages, and the counselors weren’t allowed to say anything. It was the most expensive day camp around, too.

Anyone know what other occupations are tip-dependent, that is, it is legal for the employer to pay less than minimum wage?

[Red Badger]

Jim Croce

Workin’ At The Car Wash Blues

Well, I had just got out from the county prison
Doin’ ninety days for non-support
Tried to find me an executive position
But no matter how smooth I talked

They wouldn’t listen to the fact that I was a genius
The man say, “We got all that we can use.”
Now I got them steadily depressin’, low down mind messin’
Working at the car wash blues

Well, I should be sittin’ in an air conditioned office in a swivel chair
Talkin’ some trash to the secretaries
Sayin’, “Here, now mama, come on over here.”
Instead, I’m stuck here rubbin’ these fenders with a rag

And walkin’ home in soggy old shoes
With them steadily depressin’, low down mind messin’
Workin’ at the car wash blues
You know a man of my ability

He should be smokin’ on a big cigar
But till I get myself straight I guess I’ll just have to wait
In my rubber suit a-rubbin’ these cars
Well, all I can do is a shake my head

You might not believe that it’s true
For workin’ at this end of Niagara Falls
Is an undiscovered Howard Hughes
So baby, don’t expect to see me

With no double martini in any high-brow society news
Cause I got them steadily depressin’, low down mind messin’
Workin’ at the car wash blues
So baby, don’t expect to see me

With no double martini in any high-brow society news
‘Cause I got them steadily depressin’, low down mind messin’
Workin’ at the car wash blues
Yeah I got them steadily depressin’, low down mind messin’
Workin’ at the car wash blues

Songwriters: Croce, James
Workin’ At The Car Wash Blues lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC

[gigster]

The 1976 movie was better.

[Rusty0604]

They raided some car washes in the bay area for labor law violations. Then the car washes got more expensive.