Morning coffee with Mike. Minimum Wage

minimum wage is that it might increase unemployment. That's an argument free-market economists often put forward. The argument is that there's only so much money for payroll, and if wages go up, business owners won't be able to afford as large a staff. That's a valid concern, especially for small operators, though real-world data doesn't necessarily bear that out for the economy as a whole.

The U.K. brought in a national minimum wage in 1999, for example, but unemployment actually fell between 1999 and 2007 despite regular increases in the wage. Unemployment didn't spike until 2008 when the Great Recession disrupted most of the world's large economies.

Driving Up Pricing
Classical economic theory also predicts that when wages go up, prices go up. That may be true, at least to a point, though economists are divided on the subject. Both sides can draw on studies and stats to make their cases, but that theoretical argument doesn't matter as much as your own experience, in your own business. If payroll is one of your highest costs, and you employ a lot of minimum-wage staff, you might well find yourself needing to raise prices after a wage increase.