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For small businesses, a raise in NY's minimum wage is a nightmare, for workers it's a dream

Julia Botero
/
WRVO news
Tim McAtee, owner of Dry Hill Ski Area, says if the minimum wage reaches $15 an hour, his business will close.

If Gov. Andrew Cuomo has his way, New York’s minimum wage will rise to $10.50 by the end of this year, and to $15 an hour in five years.

It would be the highest statewide minimum wage in the country, matching the minimums in cities like Seattle and San Francisco.

Many small businesses in the North Country are having a hard time seeing this big raise as a good thing, even when they recognize how hard it is for minimum wage workers to get by now.

Low wage workers can hardly imagine they’re wages going that high.

Leoni Miller grew up in Watertown. She says she starting working her first minimum wage job when she was 16.

“Working at the laundromat. Closing, cleaning,” Miller said.

By 19, Miller was married. The next year she had a baby girl, then a boy and later she divorced. By 22, she was a single mother waiting tables in Watertown. Miller supports  herself and her two kids on low-wage jobs. But just barely. “Disconnection notices all the time. I live with it all the time."

Credit Leoni Miller
Leoni MIller has worked low-wage jobs since she was 16. She relies on social services now to help feed herself and her two children. She says her income doesn't cover her cost of living.

Today, Miller works 40 hours a week at a small café in Watertown. Her coworkers say she never stops moving. She’s constantly wiping tables, sweeping the floor, making sure everyone else is multi-tasking. Miller is paid $11 an hour, $2 more than New York’s current minimum wage. She says she likes her job, but when she looks down at her paycheck, she's disappointed.

“I’m practically running this place and I’m still getting a crappy paycheck,”she said.

Miller relies on food stamps every month to feed herself and her two children.

“I’m the only person that supports my children. It’s not like I want to be on social services. I do not want to be. That’s why I’ve worked full time my whole life. But it’s not enough.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo calls his $15 minimum reasonable, in line with inflation. But people like Ken Pokalsky, vice president of the Business Council of New York state, say this will be catastrophic for small businesses in the North Country.

“No doubt employers will adapt or try to adapt but they may adapt in ways that may be disappointing by proponents of this," Pokalsky said.

What Pokalsky means is that business owners may have to make changes like cut jobs or workers’ hours to balance the extra cost of things like payroll tax and workers compensation.

“You can pass a law that says this employer has to pay X an hour. Doesn’t mean that employer can afford to do so,” Pokalsky said.

The owner of the Paddock Club is already feeling the heat. One afternoon, as his bartenders prep for the night, Robert Dalton, is sitting at his desk, typing numbers into a spreadsheet.  On January 1, Dalton was forced to raise the pay of his wait staff from $5 to $7.50 an hour. He says since then he’s had to make tough businesses decisions.

“Right now I’ve had to increase my prices on my party menus. I’ve actually had my employees step it up a little bit more," Dalton said.

Dalton had to cut his waitress, and he’s already switched to a cheaper food supplier. He says he’d rather not raise his menu prices. In a perfect world, Dalton says he wishes he could afford to pay his workers more. “They have to live too. We all have to live. They deserve it. But how do I pay for it? That’s the problem.”

Tim McAtee, owns Dry Hill Ski Area and says the fact that his business is seasonal puts him on shakier footing than others in Watertown.

“Well I’m always concerned with the weather putting me out of business. I’m more worried with New York state putting me out of business,” McAtee said.

McAtee employs 100 people. At least 70 percent earn minimum wage.

“If the minimum wage goes to 15 dollars an hour the Dry Hill Ski area will close.”

McAtee fears his lowest paid workers wages go up, he’ll have to raise everyone’s pay across the board.  He agree,  its hard to get by on just 9 dollars an hour, but he says the minimum wage isn’t supposed to be a living wage.

“In fact, a minimum wage job should be wage that you earn and you learn that you don’t want to earn minim wage. This is for part time people, teenagers, the retired but it’s not to live on,” he said.

People like Leoni Miller are living on it. At 37 years old, she says she feels stuck.

“I had to take whatever that was paying money to make sure my kids had what they needed.”

Miller did earn an associate’s degree to try and step up the ladder, but she hasn’t found a job in her field in Watertown. She says she can’t imagine getting paid $15 at hour at the job she has now.

“I’d pay the bills ahead of time because I’d be scared it wasn’t real or something. I’d be like, I’d better go ahead and pay these bills,” Miller said.

Miller says with the wage increase, life would change for everybody.  Miller says whatever she earns, she says she’ll find a way to make it work for herself and her children. She’s always had to be a fighter anyway.