If the minimum wage is raised to $10.10 an hour my company will go out of business. I own a convenience store employing myself and seven other employees. We have 8 gas pumps, a deli, sell lottery, beer, and have a wide variety of grocery items. I have 3 managers and 4 cashiers. Currently only one of those people makes over $10.10/hr. To bring everyone to that rate would cost me $314.00 more per week, or $16,328.00 more per year. In order to make up for that increase in labor to break even, I would have to increase my sales at my current pricing structure by $1050.00 per week, or $54,600.00 per year, or raise all my prices.
Another problem I will have to face is how much more am I going to have to pay my managers if my cashiers are making $10.10 an hour? Let's say I pay them $1.00 more an hour, that's another $120.00 per week and now we are up to $434.00 per week and $22,568.00 per year taken straight from the "profits". That doesn't include the payroll taxes and the increase in my unemployment reserve account to cover these new wages which has also gone up thanks to the 99 weeks of vacation given by Obummer to everyone on unemployment. I seriously don't want to know what those will cost.
Last year we had a rent increase of $1200 a month and that about put us under. We are slowly gaining some ground, but it is really difficult to built volume in a store with this current economy. I have been doing this for 14 years and I've pulled every trick I know out of the bag and it is still a huge struggle. There are only so many expenses you can cut.
If the minimum wage is increased it is going to hurt the "little guys", not the major companies like Burger King and McDonalds. They have very deep pockets. The very stores that keep this economy running will be the ones hurt the most. I know in the past, as my stores generated more profits, so did my employees. I would give more raises and monthly bonuses.
That's how you turn around the economy, fuel the "little guys" and let us increase the wages and bonuses, don't put the cart before the horse.
