Minimum Wage Survey October 17 November began 98 completed (Comments are unedited and presented as received on the survey)

Transcription

1 Minimum Wage Survey October 17 November began 98 completed (Comments are unedited and presented as received on the survey)

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3 #4 comments; 1 at $10 & 6 at $11.50 or greater $13-$ All are paid above 9.49 All my employees are $10 or over. 1 at Start at to Outside of student part time employees all are paid more than $10.00 per hour. including commissions Everyone is over 4 employees at $10-$13 Prefer EITC Well over $10 7 staff total, all paid $10-$22/hr Everyone is 9.50 or higher 14 employees all over 9.49/hr Everyone is over $10.00/hour All employees over $ >$20 5 I don't understand this question at all. None of the above None. One at $10/hour

4 o $25 #5 comments It depends on the job and person stay with federal setting mininum wage no raisd None should be left to the employer $5.00 Prefer EITC $6.15 There should be NO minimum wage. Earnings should be based on a free market.

5 #6 Comments No effect directly on us but it would effect our clients wouldn"t efect me Would feel obligated to give raises not an issue already pay more reduce commissions paid to staff We already pay above. We already pay the Federal Minimum wage because you can't find workers for less. Prefer EITC It would affect clients of mine, not me Nothing. I pay above minimum wage so it wouldn't effect me. An increase would not impact my business DIRECTLY at this time, but would indirectly because the overall economy would suffer.

6 #7 Comments not sure reduce commissions paid to staff If the minimum wage goes too high, it would increase costs to providers of goods & service as well. Prefer EITC It would not be good to the business on any level. see above Nothing. Maybe close Go out of buisness - I can't raise prices enough to cover that kind of increase without losing customers and my ability to operate. These are entry level, fairly low skill, student oriented jobs. See response to 6. Also, an increase in addition to Obamacare, if fully implemented, will drive a nail in the collective small-business coffin. We would lose product lines all together

7 #8 Comments The minimum wage does need to be increased, however, the timing is terrible. They should have been increasing it a few cents every year the past 10 years. Coming out of the worst business climate in 50 years is not the best time to make law higher wages. Business owners do not have a pile of extra cash laying around to pay these higher wages. They will cust staff and hours. Some people are not worth the current minimum wage I would support an increase to $7.25. As long as it matches federal rate and no more Economic reserach shows the Earned Income Tax Credit is much better at achieving these re-distributioinal goals and doens not distort the labor market like the min. wage does.

8 #9 Final Comments What legislatures do not comprehend is the domino effect of these changes. You cannot just increase the minimum wage people without having to change the monthly wage on those above them. How do increase an entry level position by $2 a hour without having to change a person's wage who is above them? You really need to know how many people at a business make $12 a hour and less. Any increase in the minimum wage will eventually have impact on wages above minimum wage. If you have a good employee that employee should be getting more than minimum wage; while others are not worth the minimum wage now. I believe that an employee who does well should be paid well and I do that with my employees. But I also believe wages need to be earned and aren't just some right to be claimed after sluffing off all week. I have paid over minimum wage for many years and I am a small business grossing under $750,000. I believe employers use this in their favor, not in the favor of the employee. People deserve a living wage. we need it set federally so there is a level playing field. A minimum wage is just that, a "minimum". It is not, nor should it be, a living wage. Instead of increasing the minimum, legislators & businesses should be focused on creating more "professional" wage jobs. When minimums approach the professional level wages it devalues the professional. People cannot live on the current wage AND the more money people make the more they SPEND. It is common sense! I agree on a reasonable increase, but to increase to $9.00 is very drastic! it's going to make everything higher priced I need to keep separation between our starting rate and the minimum wage to attract quality people. MN min wage increase to the Fed min wage is OK. By increasing the minimum wage would affect our business if the state grants do not increase as well. We are grant funded and a non-profit. Minnesota should strongly consider a tip credit. I agree that minimum wage needs to be increased..however the same businesses that pay minimum wage to employees are the ones that will likely increase their prices to offset the wage increase. Most of these businesses are what supply all of our needs. (Grocery Stores, C-Stores,...etc) So do we really gain anything? Other than those that are making more than minimum wage do not get a wage increase, but have to pay the price increases that are put in place to offset minimum wage increase. Many will argue that this is not true...in larger communities it does not have as great as impact, but in our smaller communites the impact would be significant. In our business an increase to minimum wage would not impact our operation, if the final minimum wage was not greater than $8.50 per hour I feel people should get paid what the market demands. It's difficult to compare metro wages to wages in smaller towns. A minimum wage increase will have a larger negative impact on small town business owners. I can see the wage increasing a little due to cost of living but raising it to $9.25 or more will just cause businesses to go out of business or employees to lose their job. Its hard enough right now to make ends meet with the economy the way it is. I think the state minimum wage should match the Federal but if it goes higher than that tipped employees should have a lower minimum wage. I have already cut staff to pay a higher rate than the fed. min. wage. I believe my current staff stays because of this. It would be harder to pay part time seasonal employees a higher min. wage. Wages should be dictated by the economy not some politician. Government seems to screw things us and create many related problems instead of solving the target problem. Keep government out of our economic system! Raising the min wage is a two edged sword. People need to be able to live, buy and enjoy life, min wage does not allow them to do that. Raising the min wage will cause inflation, this is a fact, most business owners will only raise they're prices, causing inflation. I think people need to quit spending and get back to reality and the morals we used to have in the older days. It doesn't matter if it is $2 or $25 dollar increase No one wants to work for it!!!

9 Raising Minimum wage would increase the income of those who it would impact, but it would negatively affect the rest of the population. Prices certainly will rise for all kinds of services and products. For those who make more than minimum wage, this will have an adverse affect on their annual budget which will not have a positive affect on our economy. Employers will reduce the hours of the staff, or reduce staff in general. This will also have a negative affect on the economy. Raising the wage will only give way to higher prices. Minimum experience, minimum education, minimum skill, minimum desire all equals minimum wage and that should be affordable to the business. Can't make it lby encourage you to share the findings referred to in 8. increasing the minimum wage will put more cash into the local economy and will stimulate business. current minimum wage cannot support a family at all and is mainly paid to women and young folks. If we continue to ignore the benefit of minimum wage jobs for learning work skills not taught in a class room and assume some people are not able to move on and will be locked into such jobs forever, and ignore the economic impact/reality/evidence of well intentioned laws and the trickle up costs they trigger to the consumer and public, I would contend we should then make the minimum wage $20-$25 an hour. Do away with minimum wage all together. Put more resources into training/opportunities. As a very small business owner (food service), I'm genuinely scared. Since the first minimum wage vote, our company has already indefinitely postponed several developments in Minnesota, and instead we have developed locations in Wisconsin. These actions cost 12 people their jobs in Minnesota and created 50 jobs in Wisconsin. The Unions and other supporters of a min wage increase are distorting the facts. The facts are that the overwhelming majority of minimum wage recipients are teenagers, etc. In MN, only about 18,000 people currently earn the minimum wage or below, and are at or below the poverty level. This is according to the U.S. Dept of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, an unbiased, unpartisan source of facts. People need living wage jobs. Even $10 an hour is under living wage. anybody that works full time should be paid a "living wage"! One of the big problems with the current and proposed minimum wage laws in Minnesota is the fact that we do not recognize the fact that some employees earn a great deal of their income from tips. By not having a tip credit, we force restaurants to charge much higher prices than they would otherwise have to charge. People can't afford the high prices and stay home. This hurts the economy in so many ways. The small business owner/family man-woman spends the most in the majority of middle American communities and it takes more away from him/her. Minimum wage people are less like the majority of the working class and will only spend their slight increase in pay on addictions (smokes, beer) and places like Walmart which need no help. If we don't pay people a wage they can support their families on we can't expect them to get off public assistance of one type or another. Pay your people what they are worth, they are the faces of your business! Minnesota is already a very challenging state in which to operate a business. The market should drive wages, not the government. Reduce the burden on businesses (taxes, fees, regulations), thus enabling growth, and the economy will thrive. Right now, while we do not hire anyone at minimum wage we do rely on very part time help. These associates do not need a livable wage. Increasing wages for those employees would have a devastating impact on what we could pay to those of our associates who work full time. While I agree it is criminal what some businesses do to the wages of those who have worked there for 2 years at 40 hours a week, we have striven to be fair. We are a small business in a cut throat industry. We are already struggling with inflation and prices. We don't need a labor shock.