It’s no secret that many businesses are struggling. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, tens of thousands of businesses have gone under; tens of thousands more are hanging on by a thread. In New Jersey, surveys show that an astonishingly high number of small businesses don’t expect that they will survive the restrictions placed on them, even with the federal help they received through the Paycheck Protection Program.
But now New Jersey has made it even more difficult for those businesses.
On January 1st, the state’s minimum wage for most employers went up to $12 an hour due to a bill that calls for the minimum wage to rise $1 a year until it reaches $15 an hour. I’m not going to get into the debate over whether raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do or not. That’s not the point of this article. What is the point, is that already-struggling small businesses suddenly have higher overhead expenses.
Many of these businesses are barely able to pay rent or have enough cash flow to keep up with their inventory requirements. Many business owners who were previously living middle-class lifestyles are now working 18 hours a day, only to live a destitute life with no guarantee they will ever recover. And even so, we allow for a wage hike to go into effect? Explain how that makes sense. Explain to me how this isn’t yet further proof (like we needed more) that our elected officials are tone-deaf to the actual needs of their constituents.
This is another example of how nobody cares about the middle class. There are only two types of earners that get any attention in today’s political environment: the wealthy and the poor. If you’re wealthy, you’ll be pandered to by politicians who want you to support their political aspirations, and if you’re poor, you’ll be pandered to by politicians who claim they’ll make your life better, while actually holding you down so you keep coming back to them for more empty promises. But the middle class is forgotten about. Nobody cares about the guy who owns a small eatery. Nobody cares about the small shop owner. Nobody cares.
What we are seeing is politicians who have the ability to save so many people from poverty instead focus their energy on political wins. And the hike in the minimum wage is just another political win – another great job pandering to poor people.
Good move, Gov Pothead. I’ve never been offered a job by a poor person. When I was a kid, I worked at a minimum wage job. It made things much easier for Ma, who was a widow. I was not the only young employee who had a single parent. It looks good on a resume stating you had experience dealing with the public and working during busy hours.
Wal mart and most businesses can afford to pay $15 an hour and a lot more than that no reason why these employees should have to get Government money to pay for all their needs at tax payers expense when their employers are taking in nillions
How small-minded!
When everyone has to pay a minimum wage of $15 per hour, there are more customers to buy your products. If one person unilaterally increased his wages, he may end up with less money, because no more customers enter his store. But when everyone increases wages, all businesses gain.
Fact: Increasing minimum wage in a country or state, benefits everyone in that state. The research is available, just make sure it is written by credible researchers, not hacks paid for by big business.