Comments on: Getting Ready for Seattle’s new $15 an Hour Minimum Wage https://evergreensmallbusiness.com/getting-ready-for-seattles-new-15-an-hour-minimum-wage/ Actionable Insights from Small Business CPAs Wed, 11 Oct 2017 20:40:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Steve https://evergreensmallbusiness.com/getting-ready-for-seattles-new-15-an-hour-minimum-wage/#comment-1198 Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:10:47 +0000 http://evergreensmallbusiness.com/?p=959#comment-1198 In reply to Mark.

Mark, good point about situation where owner can’t change price… And you’re surely not alone. Some business owners simply won’t be able to bump prices.

Also, though this blog focuses on small business owners, my heart also really goes out to the person who’s currently a $10 an hour employee but ends up getting hurt by this.

For example, I guess if someone has worked 2000 hours a year at $10 (so $20K), a rise in the hourly rate may mean they only need to work 1,333 hours at $15 an hour to make that same $20,000. So maybe the employer can make all this work simply by cutting hours.

But what about situation where an employer only has budget to pay $60,000 in wages. At $10 an hour, that’s three jobs. At $15 an hour, it’s only two jobs. Great news, maybe, if you’re one of the people who gets the 50% bump in wages. Not so great if you’re the person who’s now lost a job.

]]> By: Mark https://evergreensmallbusiness.com/getting-ready-for-seattles-new-15-an-hour-minimum-wage/#comment-1195 Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:40:23 +0000 http://evergreensmallbusiness.com/?p=959#comment-1195 Great analysis. I have a small dental practice that relies primarily on HMO and PPO plans, which make a price increase impossible since all of the fees are contracted and set by the insurance companies. Increasing productivity by using fewer employees doing more work is also not possible as I only have minimal staff now. The only solution in my case is to absorb the cost at the expense of my own net income, or find a way to increase business significantly in a saturated market. The policy makers never take all of the variables into account when imposing their will. The cost of pizza in Seattle may rise, but the cost of dental services will likely not.

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