The Effect on Small Businesses When Raising Minimun Wage

  As seen on the left coast and coming to New York  --- Small company. Twelve employees. Tight margins. A new law passes. “Everyone deserves a living wage.” Payroll jumps 22% overnight. The owner doesn’t throw a party. He opens Excel. Prices go up. Customers complain. Hours get cut. Shifts disappear. Two people get laid off. The remaining employees are furious. The business didn’t get richer. It got squeezed. The law didn’t create money. It just decided who wouldn’t have a job anymore.

Just a question due to my ignorance:   Does every business HAVE to raise wages when such a law is passed?  Can a business opt to not raise it, with the understanding that workers may/will run to where they make more?  

Thanks.

Candy

Generally the wage increase is required for companies that have more than x number of employees. 

In 1968 minimum wage recipients had the purchasing power of someone being paid $14.xx in today's dollars. With today's minimum wage of $7.25 an hour they have the purchasing power of $7.25 an hour or around half as much.  This illustrates how those with jobs on the low end have really been screwed. If you run a small business and can't afford to pay someone $7.25 an hour, you should have to close the doors. 

Except nobody is making $7.25

They are paying north of $15. 

NY is trying for $30 - 35

Wrong 16 states still have the $7.25 minimum wage and since they are mostly poor red states, that is all some people are making if that.  For example in Georgia if your employer is considered exempt from the Federal minimum wage the state minimum wage is applied which is a partly $5.15 an hour. 

I have been to many of these states and in many of them are paying in the $15 range based on the help wanted signs. 

You seem rather ignorant on this topic, so maybe I need to school you. Employers are allowed to pay more than minimum wage. 

DUHHHH!

The minimum wage is $7.25/hr in sixteen states. Obviously, not everyone is paid that poorly. But many people there are.

DUHHHH!

Help wanted signs do not establish the minimum wage.

DUHHHH!

Depending on whether a minimum wage law applies to a given number of employees in a business (fewer, a company is exempt) or to all employees, if any employee is paid less than the new minimum, their wage has to be increased to that.

To give Miller's bleat attention it doesn't deserve, business owners ALWAYS whine about minimum wage increases. What they don't realize, or acknowledge, is that minimum wage raises in a state give the people on the bottom rung more money to spend, which results in more customers and increased business.

MAGA has been very successful in pressuring Trump states to not increase minimum wage, even to adjust for cost of living.

Anyone earning $7.25 an hour cannot survive on that alone.