How can small businesses afford twenty dollar minimum wage?
Steep minimum wage hikes and soaring labor costs leave small business owners making less than their staff while working seven days a week. Without increased revenues, owners are forced to cut staff on slow shifts or freeze wages, making it impossible to fund competitive salaries and health benefits without going broke.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1cutting down number of people on slower shiftsDid this help you?
- 2limiting health insurance to managers and senior kitchen staffDid this help you?
- 3offering experience-based team rewards instead of cash bonusesDid this help you?
- 4Dropping coverage for weight loss medications entirely outside of diabetic useDid this help you?
- 5Implementing third-party cost containment and wellness programs like Vida or directing employees to alternative options like Lilly DirectDid this help you?
- 6offering an equity stakeDid this help you?
- 7using non-cash perksDid this help you?
- 8implementing a phased planDid this help you?
- 9being brutally honest about company financialsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I would LOVE to give my employees raises and offer free health care, but as it stands we can barely take a dime for ourselves.”source ↗
“wish we had more revenues”source ↗
“Now minimum wage is my area is $20 and tips average $3 per hour per employee. We have cut down nimber of people in some slower shifts so we can pay more to some long tenured employees but i am afraid I can no longer pay more than minimum wage and still make decent living for my 7 days a week ownership-gig with huge capital investment.”source ↗
“We had to stop covering GLP-1s for weight loss this year. It made me sick, knowing that it actually helps with a lot of other things as well.”source ↗
“The cost increase was 800% this plan year, so our benefits broker has again suggested adding Vida as a cost containment measure, and the CFO says we need to implement Vida or we stop covering GLP-1s for weight loss.”source ↗
“My best employee asked for a raise I cannot afford. How do you keep someone you cannot pay more?”source ↗
“The problem is I looked at the books last night and I genuinely cannot swing it right now without putting us underwater.”source ↗
“For those who have been here, what did you actually do? Non-cash things that mattered, a phased plan, brutal honesty about the numbers?”source ↗
Where this came up
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