Small business owners are speaking out against President Joe Biden’s push to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour as part of his COVID-19 recovery plan.
Ohio restaurant owner Adrian Adornetto said Saturday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend” that if that’s enacted, he likely will have to cut hours for the employees at his three pizza parlors.
“It will do several things to my business and my employees,” he said. “I’ll be most likely cutting hours back. I’m in the pizza business, so that $12 pizza might grow to a $19 pizza, and in my part of Ohio, that’s, you know, very expensive in today’s standards.
“We’re looking at the ripple effect, and it’s just large.”
Adronetto emphasized that this change would be particularly difficult on the restaurant industry, which has been severely affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
“And with an industry like ours … we’re at 5, maybe 6 percent profit margin,” he said. “So to squeeze what we can out on menu, and again, during a time where people are already scared to come out, we’re at half capacity, and try to pass it on to customers who are already feeling as it is with this economy, it’s pretty rough, and it’s scary.”
Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25, while Ohio’s is $8.55.
Some states do not have their own minimum wages and simply follow the federal one, but others, such as California, have a minimum wage as high as $14 an hour.
Biden also would like to get rid of tip credits, which allow restaurant owners to pay below minimum wage to waiters and waitresses who make more than that amount per hour with tip included, CNBC reported.
A minimum wage hike would be incremental but could have damaging consequences on the economy.
Although Biden claims that this is part of the COVID-19 recovery effort, it would be bound to have the opposite effect.
If a small business owner with slim profit margins cannot accommodate the pay increase, he or she will have to increase prices.
As fewer people will be making purchases because of the higher prices, owners will have no choice but to lay off workers.
At a time when people are struggling to get a job or retain their current one, a Democrat-led minimum wage increase would add put another obstacle in the way of a prosperous future for many Americans.
The Biden administration ran on the promise of a better tomorrow in the wake of the pandemic, but adding an additional burden on small business owners goes directly against that.
Author: Cameron Arcand