This morning, I told you about a calamitous douche named Chris DeRose who suggested a bunch of idiot ideas to improve customer service at McDonald's. None of DeRose's ideas involved paying the employees more.

The comments thread to that post has been pretty great, including a link from Gold Star Slog Commenter Merchant Seaman to a story from KPLU that seems to prove my thesis about McDonald's employees doing better at their jobs when they're paid a better wage. It's about a McDonald's along the border in Washington State (where the minimum wage is $9.19) that won't move twenty feet into Idaho, where the minimum wage is $7.25:

So, just to be clear: This McDonalds is in the state with the higher minimum wage. And this busy intersection is so profitable that it didn’t occur to [franchise owner Tim] Skubitz to move, even when he tore down the old McDonald’s in 2011. He built a fancier new one in the same place instead of in the state right across the street with the lower minimum wage. Skibutz says wages are just one piece of a larger puzzle.

“Just because we've expanded our business shows that we're growing our business,” he said. “And so with growing our business, I need more employees. So we've grown substantially I'd say in the last year and a half.”

The researchers who studied neighboring counties across state lines say there are a couple of reasons why minimum wage increases turn out to be a wash for businesses overall. They say first, the wage hike reduces turnover. It also leads employers to invest more in worker training, which increases productivity.

This story is proof that Republicans who insist lower wages are the way to build jobs are full of shit. I suggest you go read the whole thing.