Been reading a lot about business owners complaining about the minimum wage increase. And I don't really understand how they can say it'll hurt them so bad or increase prices of products so much. I know other factors will increase prices, like war in Europe, supply chain, etc. but they specifically cite the minimum wage increase as the cause. If they charge $5 for a coffee now and would like to raise the price to $8 in response to the wage increase, then their workers would have to be making one coffee every three hours. The math just doesn't add up. $1.05 per hour divided by the number of coffees made on average per hour should add just a few cents to a cup. If paying just a few more dollars per hour for your staff breaks your business then you're already on the verge of bankruptcy. Plus if you're already paying minimum wage then it shows that you would like to pay your employees even less, if the law let you.
I saw one cafe owner who says he already pays his employees 20% above award claim that the minimum wage increase will somehow hurt him, despite being under no obligation to raise his employees pay because it's already nowhere near minimum wage.
Now I know some food businesses are actually very friendly and cruisey with their staff and let them work at a gentle pace, which I think is fantastic because a good work environment should be kinda relaxed imo, so the minimum pay increase will hurt them more than other businesses that drive their employees like work horses. But even then we're still talking just a few cents per item made/sold.
What does anyone else here think of it? Is anyone here making minimum wage or employee minimum wage employees?
7-eleven coffee ftw, extra shot with short black.