There’s good news for workers in St. Paul with the city’s new minimum wage for small businesses.
The new standard?
$16.37 an hour, up from $15 — that lower amount went into effect earlier this year.
But for small businesses, the money must come from somewhere.
“We’re ethically fully in support of a good, decent living wage,” says Ryan Huseby, the owner of Tongue in Cheek restaurant. “It’s just for small businesses like us; it’s a hard thing to weather.”
The $1.37 increase took effect on Wednesday.
Huseby says the increase will mean some belt-tightening for employees and maybe higher prices on the menu.
“You know we adjust for it by trying to make sure we’re staying on top of, not overstaffing when we don’t need people, and we have to raise prices sometimes just to account for that,” he declares.
For businesses with 101 or more employees, the $16.37 minimum wage level will remain in place — that amount was also approved in January.
Those that have five or fewer employees must now pay a minimum of $14.25 an hour; the previous level was a dollar less.
“They’re struggling just like everybody else, with the cost of food and gas, trying to get food to their restaurants,” says Deborah Swenson, who was shopping Thursday at El Burrito Mercado. “I’m lucky, I can afford to go out to eat and tip well, but I just want everybody to be able to have a good wage and feed their families.”
We wondered if some shoppers finding higher prices would cut back.
“I’m not going to spend less,” says Robinetta Garcia-Hrbek, from Rosemount. “But more purchases will be more thought out and more planned. I know what to expect in the store as far as produce, so I plan.”
Huseby, who’s run Tongue in Cheek for 12 years now, says his finances are complicated by the fact he provides health insurance to employees working more than 20 hours a week.
His new challenge with this new minimum wage: juggling his payroll while trying to make a profit.
“It’s challenging to be sure, because a lot of the employees who are making minimum wage are also making tips, so they do pretty well already,” Huseby notes. “So, it takes away from employees who make less tips, like those who work in the back of the house. Just a little less money we can give them for raises.”
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