Increase in minimum wage another cost passed on to customers
6:12 p.m. Thursday, July 24, 2008
Good help doesn't come cheap for Mark Mehrer at Sheridan's Frozen Custard.
And while he questions whether the government should mandate how much he pays his employees, he says he's been planning for quite a while.
"Probably a year ago is when I started upping my starting wage, just to kind of compensate for when this whole thing takes effect, because then next year there's another increase," Meher said.
The minimum wage jumped from $5.15 to $5.85 an hour last year. It hops to $6.55 an hour today.
Mark Arndt's also been anticipating the minimum wage increase for awhile at his restaurant, Border Bandido.
For one, he hasn't been able to hire as many workers.
Plus, with rising gas prices and food prices, he says this is just one more cost that's passed on to customers.
"This is just another thing, that basically people are paying more," Arndt said. "Most restaurants can't take those costs without passing them on, so most of them are adding as they go."
"I do my best not to have to pass that onto the consumer. I can't every two weeks raise the price of my menu items."
But, it only gets worse. Next year, the minimum wage jumps up to $7.25 an hour.
That's the increase that's going to hurt.
While both business owners already start their workers out at $7 an hour, they say they're having to absorb a lot of the rising costs.
Only 6,000 employees across Kansas were paid the federal minimum wage in 2006.
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