http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/21/pf/minimum_wage_increases/index.htm

(And Cedar Fair will claim this has a dramatic impact on their business...how much will Mr. K's wage go up? Assuming he still works there...)

I remember starting out at 3.25 working half the day to pay for lunch and then the other half for gas to get home.

For those curious, the Ohio Minimum wage is going from $7.30 to $7.40. I actually knew about the minimum wage jump back in September or October when I heard Coney`s admissions manager talking about the increase in minimum wage.

When I started working at Coney in 2002, my first job, I was making $5.25 an hour, ten cents more than minimum wage at the time. The one nice thing was that there was also a bonus, based on the number of hours worked through the year. If you worked the entire season (and did not get any disciplinary points), you would get the bonus check in November. But when minimum wage went up (I believe it jumped first to $6.85, the bonus program was a casualty. This has had two negatives. People no longer have a reason to stick out the few weekends of post season, leaving us short staffed. And the other issue is that disciplinary points do not have much merit (there is no real difference between having two points or 10 points. The magic number is 12 points. When a worker reaches 12 points, they are terminated. Since the points used to cost people money, they had an incentive not to call in, or do anything that merits points. Now points are rather trivial.

As is always the case, I`m sure seasonal parks, which have lots of workers making minimum wage, will try and pass the increased expense onto the customer in the form of higher admission prices...

...or they could either not increase or cut executive compensation....like that's going to happen.

Seriously, though...I'd expect in-park pricing to go up yet again...admissions little if any at all...perhaps parking will also go up...it's been a while.

Cedar Fair fought hard against the wage increase a year or so ago, claiming they were exempt from such an increase. Great company.

Cedar Fair fought hard against the wage increase a year or so ago, claiming they were exempt from such an increase. Great company.

They also fought an admissions tax, which was billed as Mason trying to tax you - the Kings Island visitor.

I suppose an increase in wages with the costs being passed off on to you - the Kings Island visitor - is morally justified... right?

But there is a difference between the two. One (the admissions tax), was a municipality trying to fix their budget issues on the coattails of a business that brings them lots of money as it is already. The city of Mason would not be as big as it is today were it not for Kings Island. The increase in minimum wage is not targeted at just one or two businesses as the admissions tax was. Yes, minimum wage increases do get passed onto the paying customer. But not just at Kings Island. Prices nudge up at all places that employ minimum wage workers to offset the increase in labor costs.

My point is if they weren't going to eat the admissions tax then they're certainly not going to eat the minimum wage increase.

But the Board of Directors would happily have the guests absorb increases in executive compensation, especially for the person(s) who caused their selection? See there? Is that a fair Q?

Sweet, so from 7.30 to 7.40 an hour for new employees/regular employees.

Expand that from just amusement parks to everything..... Hello higher prices in Ohio...