The pro-business lobby must view me as exceptionally dim witted. When they tell me that raising the minimum wage will kill mom and pop stores by making it too expensive to stay in business I stare at them the way my dog stares at me when I ask my dog if she wants to go for a walk even though it is raining and I’d rather sit on the couch: I hear what you’re saying but it’s not all making sense.
Undoubtedly there will be strain on those companies barely getting by. The husband and wife who just opened a flower stand may have to postpone expansion until they get their personnel costs in line, or management at the neighborhood restaurant may have to cut wait staffs’ hours or dismiss an employee or two in favor of automation.
I don’t often hear them saying that raising the minimum wage may be good for business.
The notion that it will cost more money to sell goods and services is simple enough for even me to grasp. What seems to be forgotten or ignored, however, is that in raising the state’s minimum wage so that it gives employees a bigger paycheck (not to mention a little bit of distance between them and the poverty line) it also gives consumers more spending power.
In other words, that administrative assistant that’s barely scraping by may now have a little bit left over that affords him a regular visit to the just-opened brew pub to pay $6 or $7 dollars for a pint the owners are hawking.
In earning $15 an hour the hotel maid may be able to afford reliable daycare, or not have to make a choice between diapers and food.
Paying some schmuck $15 per hour to take your order, super-size it and bring it to you may allow her to pay her rent on time and keep her landlord happy, who in turn keeps her own bill collectors in line, or pay the fees needed for finishing her AA degree.
Increasing the minimum wage not only affects those at the lowest rung of the earning ladder but those on the rungs above and next to it as employers provide increases to maintain an equal pay scale.
Which brings us back to the increased cost of doing small business for mom and pop. If they can’t afford to stay open because they have to pay everyone more money then they may have to close, putting more people out of work than might have been unemployed had the minimum wage not been increased. That is a real risk.
But the entrepreneurs who struck out on their own knew the risks of doing so. And they also know that when a void is created it is filled by someone with a better idea and a plan. Where they failed, others succeed.
The minimum wage increase will take some getting used to and, while there will be casualties in the short term, in the long term it will do more good than harm.
