Governor's $15 veto overridden

TPD

the poor dad
I ran some numbers over the weekend for one of my businesses with the new minimum wage. With my current sales and staffing (5-6 employees) the new law would increase my total payroll by $25-30,000 per year. This means I would have to increase the price of every product in my store by a minimum of 5%. This would just cover the increase of my payroll. There will have to be an additional increases to cover higher product costs & freight charges because of increased minimum wage - you know trickle down effect. Of course taxes, rents, utilities, insurance, etc go up every year so additional increase in prices for that as well. Yeah increased minimum wages helps everyone!
 

Monello

Smarter than the average bear
PREMO Member
6 months out of high school, I was making more than minimum wage. Minimum wage is a springboard to higher pay. Politicians think people get minimum wage and then never get a pay increase the rest of their working careers.
 
I ran some numbers over the weekend for one of my businesses with the new minimum wage. With my current sales and staffing (5-6 employees) the new law would increase my total payroll by $25-30,000 per year. This means I would have to increase the price of every product in my store by a minimum of 5%. This would just cover the increase of my payroll. There will have to be an additional increases to cover higher product costs & freight charges because of increased minimum wage - you know trickle down effect. Of course taxes, rents, utilities, insurance, etc go up every year so additional increase in prices for that as well. Yeah increased minimum wages helps everyone!
Yep.

Let's say you were paying a cashier $8 an hour for a 40 hour week... factoring in the employee's contribution to SS and Medicare you are looking at $344 a week. $15 an hour for a 40 your week... factoring in the employee's contribution for SS and Medicare you are looking at $646 a week. That is an increase of $302 each week for just one employee. You also have to factor in the increase in costs to workman's comp insurance which is based on wages paid. That is a big hit to any business. All businesses would need to increase costs so that means an increase is all services a business needs such as trash removal, deliveries, accountants, etc. and for all supplies (office, cleaning, storage, etc.) and other overhead (utilities, insurance, rent, etc.) will be increasing as well which leaves a business having to increase costs to their consumer.

$15 an hour will not be a 'living wage' and very well could end up a 'cut' in spending value when all is said and done.
 

Goldenhawk

Well-Known Member
  • The recently passed bill to raise Maryland’s minimum wage to $15 per hour could cost 94,600 jobs.
  • For perspective, this is equivalent to eliminating nearly 50 percent of projected job growth between 2016 and 2026.
  • Maryland is not in a strong position to absorb this shock, as it continued to experience below-average job growth while the state implemented its previous minimum wage hike from 2014 to 2018.
"Raising the minimum wage may seem appealing, but it is important to understand that it has a cost. Unfortunately, the low-wage, low-skill workers who labor advocates want to help are the very workers who tend to bear the brunt of this cost. Substantial evidence suggests that mandated wage hikes reduce hiring, cost the lowest skilled workers their jobs,[11] and may even force businesses to shut down.[12] Maryland’s new $15 per hour minimum wage could cost the state 94,600 jobs—nearly 50 percent of a decade’s worth of job growth."
 

spr1975wshs

Mostly settled in...
Ad Free Experience
Patron
I am already making almost $3.00 an hour more than the new minimum will be. I highly doubt national chain store employers like mine will care to increase the wages of folks like me with experience and knowledge in the face of over paid know-littles. From what I see, the move IS to use more part timers, at fewer hours per employee. I'm available up to 20 hours per week. The store is in a busy period and we are short of staff compared to the past. I am not scheduled 20 hours a week.
 

frequentflier

happy to be living
The current min wage in MD is $10.10. It is still $7 something in VA. My managers work "full time" and there are five hourly employees working between eight and thirty five hours a week. I cannot offer benefits to anyone but I try to pay them as much as I can afford to. And offer discounts and free stuff. I try to not cut hours but there are days I am going to need to start sending people home early if sales continue to decline.
The cost of business continues to rise and distributors raise prices regularly and some of the products- significantly (like $3 or $4 for a 30 lb bag of dog food) As much as I hate to raise prices, I have to. Every time a truck pulls up in front of my store, it costs between $8 and $25 per delivery and we average 4 to 5 deliveries a week (I know, it's the "cost of doing business").
It is difficult being a small business right now. Sites like chewy and amazon are killing me. People ask if I will price match them and wal mart. I guess people think I am getting rich and can afford to give stuff away. The truth is, small stores like mine won't be around in a few years. The rich will continue getting richer.
Sorry to say, increasing the starting min wage to $15 will be impossible for a business like mine to keep afloat. It will be leak that sinks my boat.
 

NextJen

Raisin cane
I guess people think I am getting rich and can afford to give stuff away.
I find this to be true, especially among young people. Of course lots of them apply this thought to the big chain stores - big corporations, but they don't stop to think about the impact on small businesses.

Young folks seem to think that Walmart and the likes will just suck up this pay hike out of their corporate profits because "they can afford to."
Won't they be surprised.
 
The current min wage in MD is $10.10. It is still $7 something in VA. My managers work "full time" and there are five hourly employees working between eight and thirty five hours a week. I cannot offer benefits to anyone but I try to pay them as much as I can afford to. And offer discounts and free stuff. I try to not cut hours but there are days I am going to need to start sending people home early if sales continue to decline.
The cost of business continues to rise and distributors raise prices regularly and some of the products- significantly (like $3 or $4 for a 30 lb bag of dog food) As much as I hate to raise prices, I have to. Every time a truck pulls up in front of my store, it costs between $8 and $25 per delivery and we average 4 to 5 deliveries a week (I know, it's the "cost of doing business").
It is difficult being a small business right now. Sites like chewy and amazon are killing me. People ask if I will price match them and wal mart. I guess people think I am getting rich and can afford to give stuff away. The truth is, small stores like mine won't be around in a few years. The rich will continue getting richer.
Sorry to say, increasing the starting min wage to $15 will be impossible for a business like mine to keep afloat. It will be leak that sinks my boat.
What sucks is once the online businesses chase away the stores they will have us by the wallet and all the incentives we currently get from choosing online shopping will go away and we will have no way of going back to hands-on shopping.

The writing is already on the wall with Amazon. Their prices are no longer competitive but now often times equal or more than what you could get hands-on shopping. And I have also noticed that their Amazon Prime is no long promising 2 day shipping unless you want to pay additional shipping charges.... and their yearly membership fee continues to grow.
 

frequentflier

happy to be living
What sucks is once the online businesses chase away the stores they will have us by the wallet and all the incentives we currently get from choosing online shopping will go away and we will have no way of going back to hands-on shopping.

The writing is already on the wall with Amazon. Their prices are no longer competitive but now often times equal or more than what you could get hands-on shopping. And I have also noticed that their Amazon Prime is no long promising 2 day shipping unless you want to pay additional shipping charges.... and their yearly membership fee continues to grow.

I try to be as competitive as I can be. But we don't get the breaks the big boys do. People suggest I start a delivery service. All the thefts off of porches over the holidays makes me think this is a big NO, not to mention having a vehicle for deliveries, gas and insurance.
 

stgislander

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
but they don't stop to think about the impact on small businesses.

Well it's not like they weren't told that in hearings. Groups from the rural areas went to Annapolis multiple times to testify what it would do to small businesses. The Dems don't care!!!
 

NextJen

Raisin cane
Honestly its not their 'job' to ... it is competition
Well it's not like they weren't told that in hearings.

In my post I was strictly talking about how young people don't think about small businesses having to scrape by. They assume the big box stores and big corporations are 'rich' without ever giving a thought to small businesses. The 'they' I was speaking of was young folks.
 

TCROW

Well-Known Member
In my post I was strictly talking about how young people don't think about small businesses having to scrape by. They assume the big box stores and big corporations are 'rich' without ever giving a thought to small businesses. The 'they' I was speaking of was young folks.

Plenty of non-young people think this way too. The world of online instant gratification wasn’t invented and perfected by young people, most of whom weren’t even born at the genesis of this modern age.

Yes, owning a small business is tough. Adapt or die.
 
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