They have the mandate to create new regulation. They could for example say that pumping gas at the station is a job that requires training and only qualified personnel can do this job.
That would instantly create new jobs and the businesses would be forced to accommodate.
Hiring someone is a last recourse for any business since it's very expensive so you can't expect businesses to magically create jobs.
Jobs must exist by market demand, artificially creating jobs is the worst thing a country can do. Every law had good intentions, it's always the indirect side effects that cause problems.
I live in New York... New Jersey has mandatory pump attendants and the prices are all on-par or cheaper than surrounding states.
For all of the bellyaching, i don't think that people are as expensive as they seem.
A common fuel station here usually have 8 pumps, and usually 4 employees to operate at a time. Due to laws on working hours, etc, there may be 2 or 3 shifts. Without going into peak hours and different # of people per shifts, a standard station may easily have 10-15 employees. Then multiply what you pay to each employee by 2 due to taxes, etc.
Not saying it's the highest of the expenses, but employees in Brazil adds up to the operation costs. It's one of the main complaints in business here.
Again, it's not free, but operating pumps is far from the expensive bit.
Second one person can operate more than one pump. In a peak hour you can probably hit 50+. Also, one person from 10pm - 6am then 2 people from 6-2pm and 2 people from 2pm to 10pm means that 2 people per hour occurs when you have fewer people. Further, they will be doing stuff like cleaning during that down time meaning it effectively costs less than 1 person at night.
Also, many gas stations don't operate 24 / 7. You may have one on each side of the street during the day and then one shuts down at night.
PS: Small Gas stations average 500-1,000 people per day. / 24 hours that's 20-40/h on average.
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2015/12/29/driver...
There were endless political debates over this after the Great Recession when money and bonds were cheap and unemployment was high. Significant investments are needed in infrastructure (I think that was even a Trump campaign promise?) across the US but the issue has become unnecessarily politicized.
Please, don't encourage them to spread that hellish concept out of New Jersey.
I'd suggest reversing it and taxing capital gains at the full rate and income tax at half. This is how it's done in Switzerland I believe, if you want a case study. They seem like they're doing okay.
Paying someone for their labor is a taxable transaction. Selling an asset at an appreciated value is a taxable transaction. Transferring wealth to descendants after death is a taxable transaction. 'Already taxed' money is not a thing.
Consumption taxes are about as efficient as taxes get, especially when you can exempt specific products (and increase taxation on extreme luxuries).
The problem with socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of money to steal.
The end result of your logic is basic income. Which is, no matter how useless you are, you still get food and shelter. Food and shelter is not a human right.