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Operators Sound Off About New Minimum Wage Hike

CHICAGO — Nearly 30% of operators say the new minimum wage law will have a major effect on their businesses, a recent Wire survey shows. However, most of the survey respondents currently pay their attendants more than their state’s minimum wage or the federal minimum wage.Thirty-five percent of the respondents say the new minimum wage law will have a minor effect on their businesses; 14.3% say it will have little, if any, effect on business, and 21.4% say it will have no effect on business.More than half of the respondents (57.1%) don’t plan on cutting back on the number of attendants they have or slashing attendant hours.Nearly 80% of the operators believe it’s hard to attract quality workers if you just pay the minimum wage. With this in mind, 85.7% of the respondents say they pay their attendants more than their state’s minimum wage or the federal minimum wage.The survey also shows that operators are staying flexible on the wage issue. Sixty-three percent of the operators who pay minimum wage say they would consider paying more than the minimum wage if it meant attracting a higher quality employee. Eighteen percent say they wouldn’t pay more than the minimum wage even if it meant getting better employees, and 18% are not sure if they would change their wage position. 

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