Notice economics at work. When the price of labor is forced to be raised above that of the actual labor price, a various things will happen to compensate:
- There will be a reduction in labor hired (ie., the lowest skilled workers will be fired
- There will be a substitution for labor (ie., robots or various tech solutions will replaced the now expensive human labor)
- The rest of the costs will be passed on to the consumers.
Small business owners in Oregon say they are worried about how the first of a series of minimum wage increases will affect both their profits and their employees.
The Corvallis Gazette-Times reports (http://bit.ly/28YfTQl ) that Oregon’s minimum wage on Friday jumps from $9.25 an hour to $9.75 in Oregon counties with a mix of urban and rural areas.
It is the first of seven annual increases that will raise the minimum wage to $13.50 minimum wage in the summer of 2022 in mixed areas, $14.75 in Portland and $12.50 in nonurban areas.
In Benton County, owners of restaurants, farms, retail establishments and nonprofits say the increased labor cost will likely be passed to the consumer or jobs will be cut.
Via the Associated Press