This Fayetteville Observer story about the progressives’ push to hike the minimum wage includes these comments from the person who would have to pay the hike.
The 38-year-old owner of a small business in Stedman said an increase in the minimum wage would hurt.
“It would put a toll on me,” said the owner, who asked that her name not be used because her establishment is affiliated with a larger corporation. “I couldn’t pay employees to come in because I couldn’t afford them. With minimum wage – if it goes up, I would have to cut some people’s hours. Who’s going to want a 30-hour-a-week job and then, if the minimum wage goes up, have to cut their hours?”
From her way of thinking, it’s a different scenario for those who live in a larger city, where the cost of living is higher.
“I understand that people need to make money. I’m a business owner. I do, too,” she said. “Here in the little town of Stedman, North Carolina, it’s going to put a toll on me.”
As JLF’s Roy Cordato put it in this Daily Tar Heel story on the same topic:
“What the minimum wage does is it puts a padlock on the entryway to the labor market for a lot of people — they tend to be teenaged workers, especially black teenage workers, high school dropouts and people with very low skill,” he said.
