Small businesses in Ellensburg could be heavily affected by a minimum wage increase to $15. While big corporations could adapt easily, small businesses say they’d risk going out of business.

A living wage of $15 per hour is one of the biggest issues in the United States right now. In 2014, Seattle passed a law regarding a  $15 minimum wage, allowing companies to gradually increase their worker  wages, until they are paying full minimum wage. Just recently, Oregon passed minimum wage legislation that would gradually increase the minimum wage until it is at $15 an hour by 2019. A living wage is also a main plank of Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders’ platform.

While there are many people who support $15 an hour and others who don’t, there are those caught in between, like Melissa Irwin. Irwin is a senior at Central Washington University and is majoring in business. She works as a cashier at the Wrap and Roll station in the SURC and is paid the current minimum wage of $9.47 an hour.

“Part of me is against it because I feel like you should go to school to be paid that wage, but another part of me thinks if someone is down on their luck and they just can’t get out of their minimum-wage job, then they should be able to live off a $15 wage,” Irwin said.

One major issue with a minimum wage of $15 is that workers in easy jobs would be making the same as someone who went to school to get specialized skills. One example of this is fast food workers would be paid the same as paramedics.

Irwin feels like the amount SURC workers are paid right now is a decent wage since most of the jobs in the SURC are pretty easy.

“I literally just swipe a card, so that doesn’t really require a lot of skill,” Irwin said.

Bernie Sanders

According to his campaign website, Sanders has proposed a federal minimum wage increase of $15 over the next several years so that no person who works long hours has to live in poverty.

Courtney Smith, sophomore math major, participated in the Ellensburg march for Bernie Sanders because she believes he is the right candidate to fight for a living wage in America.

“Nobody who works 50 hours a week should be living in poverty,” Smith said firmly.

Smith pointed out that if the minimum wage had increased as the inflation rate increased, it would be up to $25 by now.

Mary Treis, junior Japanese major, also agreed with Smith’s statement that anyone who works 50 hours a week should not be living in poverty.  Treis says that Sanders is not only fighting for a living wage, he is also fighting for equal pay as well.

Going out of Business

CWU lecturer David Douglas has lived in Ellensburg since 2001. Douglas feels like the cost of living is a big factor in a minimum wage of $15.

“I think it’s appropriate in areas that have above-average cost of living,” Douglas says.

If minimum wage of $15 does not become a federal standard, Douglas does not believe that the city of Ellensburg would ever pass a law about it. There are significantly more conservative voters in town than there are progressive voters.

If Washington state does pass a law about $15 minimum wage, Douglas believes that Ellensburg would adapt, but some small businesses could be heavily affected by it.

“If it’s a small business and they’re accustomed to paying minimum wage primarily to their employees, and then you add the taxes you have to pay on each of those employees. If you force them to increase their base wage by 50 percent from $10 an hour to $15 an hour, that’s a pretty significant increase in labor cost, which cuts into the bottom line,” Douglas says.

Jason Shaw, the store manager and his wife Denise Shaw, the owner of Nerdcore Toys and Collectables, said they believed a minimum wage increase to $15 would kill small businesses.  Jason Shaw explained how increasing the minimum wage to $10 or $12 right now wouldn’t be too bad, but jumping straight to $15 an hour would not be a wise idea.

Denise Shaw, with a scowl on her face, mentioned how a minimum wage increase to $15 would be alright for big corporations because they could afford to pay their employees that much and it would mean more business for them. They wouldn’t have to try to compete with multiple small businesses offering similar products to what they sell.

Irwin also mentioned that she was worried about small businesses going out of business or laying off workers because of any increase in the minimum wage.

“I feel like just because they don’t have that competitive advantage over big companies that make millions a year, they could struggle with paying employees that much and it also could result in them laying off employees, which could cause a bad rep for them,” Irwin says. “It could potentially backfire if people are upset enough, they could write bad reviews of the company or persuade others away from that company.”