They just keep trotting out this meme
I’m a small business owner, here’s why a $15 minimum wage works for us
Earlier this month, Gov. Phil Murphy presented a comprehensive vision to grow and restore confidence in New Jersey’s economy. Central to the governor’s plan is raising wages for Garden State workers — a noble idea.
As the founder and owner of a small business here in New Jersey, I not only understand the importance of paying workers a living wage, but I put that value into practice every single pay period.
At my company, Love2brew, we pay all of our employees at least $15 an hour – and it works.
I founded Love2brew in 2011 to share the joy of home-brewed beer and winemaking with enthusiasts across the country. My team entered the home-brew industry with an understanding that a high level of service and customer support would set us apart from our competition. As most small-business owners know, the quality of services offered creates loyalty to the products you sell.
And more expensive than most.
Since our founding, we learned that the best retention and performance came from team members who were earning at least $15 an hour. We saw this in their enthusiasm, focus and overall willingness to go the extra mile for every customer we serve. With that lesson learned, all Love2brew employees now make at least $15 an hour. We see this as a critical component to meeting and often exceeding our customers’ expectations of excellent service. Simply put, paying a living wage assures our team a level of personal and economic stability that translates into a passion for our purpose.
That’s quite a bit of money!
Raising our starting pay to over $15 an hour has supported our continued acceleration to a position of national leadership in our niche home-brew market. We did this all without having to raise prices on any of our 1,500-plus items. And make no mistake, Love2brew is still very much a small business with only three employees, but that hasn’t deterred us from paying everyone on our team at least $15 an hour. Supporting a $15 minimum wage isn’t only for large firms.
And the people probably deserve that money. I’d challenge owner Ron Rivers to purchase a fast food franchise or something where the skills needed are low, and see if he changes his tune. Because I’d bet his current employees are high skill. Someone making the products and the other things necessary to run Love2brew aren’t simply flipping/mircrowaving burgers and asking if you want to upsize that.
Of course, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is good for working families, too.
You can read the rest, but, what he wants is to force this by government. And what happens next? His skilled, valuable employees will realize that they deserve more than minimum wage. That they are better than someone dropping fries in oil. And will want more money. To do this, he’ll have to raise his prices. And customers might say “never mind, I can get this elsewhere.” Real world economics are a bitch.
Regardless, it’s his choice to pay $15 to start. Other professional companies do the same. Because of value.
