Rahmaland Minimum Wage Hike is Squeezing Small Businesses

The most recent bump in Chicago’s minimum wage has pushed the rate to $10.50 from $10. It will increase to $11 next year, and then by $1 each year until 2019.

It is already impacting some small businesses.

Austin Berg reports:

When Chicago City Council voted in 2014 to hike the city’s minimum wage to $13 an hour over the next five years, business owners warned there would be pain.

The owner of the iconic Original Rainbow Cone ice cream shop in Beverley said she would be forced to cut the number of students her business employs over the summer by half. A Panera Bread location cited the hike when it decided to close, as did Home Run Inn pizza when it killed plans to open a new location in Portage Park.

Anecdotal evidence surrounding the second phase of the 58 percent hike in the minimum wage, which went into effect July 1, suggests the trend will continue.

Aly Udartseva, who runs a Wicker Park coffee shop and pays four of her eight employees minimum wage, said she’s had to raise prices on some items by 15 percent, according to the Chicago Tribune....

The Tribune also spoke with Hank Meyer, co-owner of BJ’s Market and Bakery, who is worried that low-income customers at his two South Side restaurants won’t be able to stomach price increases brought on by the hike.

The minimum wage is evil.

-RW