Small Businesses Hit Hard by Proposed Minimum Wage Increase
By: Ali Touhey
Updated: January 23, 2013
Rochester, NY-- Nine years ago, Rebecca Malek and her husband, Ron fulfilled their american dream. They opened Balsam Bagels.
"It's a good neighborhood. People are very supportive. We are very happy to be here," said Malek. "Business is good."
"So good, in fact, the small bagel business on North Winton Road has grown from three employees to 10.
"We try to do as much as we can for our employees,"
explained Malek.
That includes paying employees more than the state's $7.25 an hour for minimum wage.
They said Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposal to raise minimum wage to $8.75 an hour would be a challenge.
"It would be a leap for us to bring some of our people up to that."
Tim Mason is president of the Rochester Small Business Council which is also an affiliate of the Rochester Business Alliance.
He says that $1.50 increase per hour, per employee could be devastating for many of the 300 small businesses he represents.
"Imagine in your own household if you had to take a 20 percent increase and figure out where that cost was going to come from. There's certainly some things that you are going to have to give up."
Mason says small businesses would likely pass the expense on to consumers.
He also thinks companies would let people go and stop hiring.
"We need to do everything to be advocates for small business not to hurt the future of small business and the opportunity for those people to be gainfully employed by those small businesses."
Meantime, Malek will continue living that american dream.
And no matter what happens, she says she won't pass the buck onto her customers.
"It would have some cause and effect on our bottom line. We would make it work."
The budget is due April 1st.
