Eat the Cost
Minimum wage is going up, making life easier for hard-working hourly employees. But many of your favorite local businesses are at risk because they can’t afford to pay higher wages without becoming unprofitable. They need to increase their prices, but are worried about how their favorite customers might respond. You can help by paying slightly more for your favorite meals and drinks—less than $1/day.
Share Your support
Let your local businesses and their teams
know you support them both.
Let them know you’re ready to eat the costs.
Yes, I will pay more for my food to support
my favorite local business and their team.
A Little Background
Adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage was the highest in 1968. That’s almost 50 years of declining earning power for the 60 million Americans that rely on the incomes of low wage work, including 15 million children. To make life better for these hard-working employees, cities, states and the federal government are considering minimum wage increases ranging from 30 to 50%.
Most local businesses cannot afford to pay this increase. With average profit margins of 5%, and existing labor costs of 25% or more, these increases will make serving your favorite drinks and meals unprofitable. Homebase, a company that provides scheduling software to local businesses and their employees, estimates that a $12 increase would put 40% of local restaurants and retailers out of business. Many businesses will close or reduce service because they don’t think their customers will accept a price increase.
You, the consumer, have the power to help both. If the businesses passed on the cost of minimum wage in the form of higher prices, it would lead to an average cost increase of $14.80. You would pay less than a $1 per day to cover the costs of an increase in wages and keep your favorite businesses open.
We believe that our local businesses and the people who work in them are what make our towns and cities great. We want them to know that we support them, and are ready to pay a little more to keep them in our community.
