Minimum wage increase next month

[system]

Hi Y’all, I am new to this forum and would appreciate any advice you can supply regarding the next minimum wage increase next month. We own 4 small pizzerias in very small towns in Texas. 1000 population, 2500 population in two and 4400 population in the fourth, competition in all of them. I feel even with the increases in food costs and labor costs over the past year and a half that I am topped out on what I am able to charge for a pizza, however, the next hit from the government is going to cost approximately $1200.00 more a month in labor. (including increased taxes) This is enough to make the difference between being profitable or going broke. Can I hear how some of you are dealing with this increase? Thanks!

 

[bodegahwy]

Not an issue for us. Minimum wage is so far in the rear view mirrror that it does not matter.

I would say raise your prices. All your competition is in the same boat. When customers ask, tell them exactly what happened.

 

[PIZZAMAGOO]

I am with Bodegahwy on this as well. You really need to pass this on to the consumer and they should understand. You can also take a look to see if you can shave any labor hours off to save some money, or try to move to higher paid but also higher producing people. I would much rather have one $11 or $12 an hour employee that can do the work of two $8 an hour people!

 

[bodegahwy]

Pizzamagoo brings up a great point. In most stores, the best employee is worth double the average employee (your worst employee is costing you money, not making you money)

We can do a $3000 night with three rockstars on the line… or with five bozos, and the three rockstars will do it better, with fewer mistakes.

Sometimes the answer is finding the productivity to reduce hours. If you have a crew of 4 or more at a time, you coan probably find a way to save enough hours to reduce costs even with rising wages. I have found you can even explain the issue to the employees. Tell them you are happy to pay them more, in fact you would like to give them $2 raises but you need to work together to figure out how to do it. Is there more that could be done while they are there? Are there wasted hours when it is slow that leave cleaning and prep projects to be done with additional hours?