| Greenville News
A Greenville restaurateur shared his thoughts on the impact of a $ 15 federal minimum wage on a deposition before the Senate on Thursday.
Carl Sobocinski, chairman and founder of Table 301 Restaurant Group in Greenville testified before the United States Senate Budget Committee on Thursday morning as part of a collective that spoke out against the Biden government’s “Increase Salary” bill , which would raise the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour in 2025.
If enacted in late March, the 2021 Wage Increase Act, which was introduced on January 26, would gradually raise the federal minimum wage each year to $ 15 in 2025.
The current federal minimum wage of $ 7.25 an hour was set in 2009.
Sobocinski repeated his support for raising the minimum wage, but not in the proposed way, which he said would lead to huge cost increases for small businesses and result in fewer jobs.
“I am not opposing an increase in the minimum wage, I am looking for a common sense approach to this,” Sobocinski told the committee. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Fifteen dollars an hour in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, is not the same as $ 15 an hour in Greenville, South Carolina.”
Sobocinski repeated that his company pays employees $ 10 an hour starting salary. An increase to $ 15 would increase your payroll by 33%, causing an additional cost ripple effect.
“So, a $ 100,000 payroll and adding $ 33,000 to that, raise taxes and employer premiums on workers’ compensation policies and 401k contributions,” said Sobocinski. “You will have business closing faster than during the pandemic.”
According to the proposed legislation, the salary paid would also increase and, ultimately, be eliminated in five years. That wage, which prevails in the restaurant industry, is $ 2.13 an hour, a rate that was established in 1991.
The National Restaurant Association has spoken out strongly against Raise the Wage, saying the effort “poses an impossible challenge for the restaurant industry”, especially at a time when restaurants across the country have been wiped out by the impact of the new coronavirus pandemic.
One in six restaurants closed, statistics from the National Restaurant Association show.
Sobocinski estimated that his company’s revenues fell 35% in 2020 compared to 2019 due to the pandemic.
Sobocinski, who was invited to attend the hearing by US Senator Lindsey Graham, also made distinctions between small and large corporations, and he thanked Congress for acting quickly to provide relief to small businesses against coronavirus last year.
“That is the only reason my restaurants are still open today,” he said.
The committee also heard from Costco CEO Craig Jelinek. Jelinek detailed his company’s experience by offering employees a starting salary of $ 15 an hour, full benefits and paid time off, an effort he called “good for our business”.
Good in the sense that the company spends less time and money on employee turnover, hiring and training.
The audience also included the testimony of two low-paid workers who work for McDonald’s and Wal-Mart, who spoke about the extreme challenges of trying to stay afloat while working in a full-time job.
“It wouldn’t make me rich, it would just make life comfortable,” said Terrence Wise, who has worked in fast food for more than 20 years talking about the impact of a $ 15 minimum wage. “It would mean not worrying about paying the fees my daughter’s veteran.
“People think that if you work full time in this field, life must be great. Well, it isn’t.”
The minimum wage in South Carolina for a single adult without children is $ 14.83, according to the Living Wage Calculator, which is operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A family of single adults with a child would need to earn $ 30.30 an hour.
Lillia Callum-Penso covers food for Greenville News. She loves the stories the recipes tell and finds inspiration in the people behind them. When she is not exploring the local food, she can be found running, both for pleasure and to accompany her 5-year-old twins. Contact her at [email protected], or at 864-478-5872, or on Facebook at facebook.com/lillia.callumpenso.