Minimum wage raise not likely to disrupt local businesses

Missouri, along with 19 other states, will see a minimum wage increase in the new year.

On Thursday, the state minimum wage will rise by 15 cents to $7.65 an hour. The minimum wage for tipped workers in Missouri will rise by 9 cents, making it $3.83 per hour. It is estimated that about 131,000 low-wage workers will benefit from the increases in Missouri, with more than 3.1 million benefiting nationally.

Among them is Brian McCutcheon, a sandwich artist who earns minimum wage at Subway in Cape Girardeau.

McCutcheon said the increase probably would have more of an effect on his job if he worked at a larger-scale restaurant, but since the sandwich shop has a smaller staff, he doesn't think his hours or job status will suffer.

"Being someone who will be affected by it, it's always good to get more money, but of course it's always going to affect the employer as well, because we have 'X' number of people that get paid a certain amount more -- if [the company] can't keep up with it, they're going to have to make changes," McCutcheon said.

Missouri has seen a steady minimum wage increase since 2012, adding 10 cents in 2013, 15 cents in 2014 and now 15 cents in 2015, according to the Missouri Department of Labor & Industrial Relations at labor.mo.gov.

Tina Abbott, co-owner of the small business Cup 'n' Cork at 11 S. Spanish St. in Cape Girardeau, said she doesn't think the increase will affect her business, since she has a small staff who mostly work on tip-based minimum wage.

However, Abbott also said that over time, consistent increases could lead to unavoidable price bumps in food and beverages that Cup 'n' Cork and other businesses sell.

"They keep doing this to us every year -- 15 cents here, 15 cents there -- every time you do that, we have to compensate somewhere," Abbott said.

The minimum wage increase is a result of a 2006 ballot initiative that supplies annual rate adjustments for living costs in the state. Missouri is among nine of 20 states to have this automatic increase, and the other 11 will see an increase because of changes in state minimum wage laws.

John Mehner, president of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce, said he doesn't see the minimum wage increase having a large effect on businesses in the area. He said a larger increase, which some states such as Arkansas ($1.25) and South Dakota ($1.25) are facing, may cause businesses to experience challenges, but the smaller increase should not make that big of a difference for local businesses.

He also said a number of businesses throughout the Cape Girardeau area are insulated from the increase because they already pay employees above the standard minimum wage.

Mehner said each business is faced with its own particular set of circumstances and what it can afford to pay its employees, and that depending on what the minimum wage is, some may choose to hire fewer people or simply pay the difference.

Small increases of 10 or 15 cents typically don't affect businesses, but increases year after year potentially could have a larger impact, he added.