OPINION: Low minimum wage is bad for business
As a small business owner myself, I don’t see the logic in business people arguing against increasing the minimum wage.
It’s just not logical to pay people a wage that doesn’t even cover basics like food, housing, utilities and transportation needed to get to work.
At $7.25 an hour, the minimum wage comes to just $15,080 a year for full-time employees. Think about cashiers or health aides, childcare workers or fast food servers trying to make ends meet on $15,080.
How can you keep people fully engaged in the success of your business when they are distracted with worry about how they are going to pay rent or keep the lights on? How can they provide the best customer service when they are struggling to feed their family? I know firsthand, you don’t need to pay poverty wages to succeed. In fact, paying higher wages is truly beneficial for business.