Weak Enforcement Will Blunt the Impact of New York’s $15 Minimum Wage
17th May 2016
Markets work even when you don’t want them to.
In January, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer made the case to the State Senate that a $15 minimum wage would be good even for “smaller businesses.” He pointed to the example of Brooklyn Brine, “a pickle manufacturer in Sunset Park [that] pays workers at least $16 an hour.”
It’s telling that an artisanal pickle maker that prides itself on “hand-crafted, non-GMO, Kosher-certified” fare and a “spicy maple bourbon” flavored variety that sells for $10 per jar is Stringer’s model small business. Notably, he didn’t mention the numerous Ecuadorian restaurants, Chinese dumpling houses, and Mexican coffee shops in the same predominantly immigrant neighborhood. youtube
The Crustian definition of ‘small business’ is not necessarily yours. They think of Whole Foods as a neighborhood grocery store, for example, where the rest of us think of Kroger or even Walmart.
Ensuring that New York businesses comply with government-mandated wage floors falls primarily to a dysfunctional and understaffed division of the state government. Many businesses don’t heed the current $9 minimum; when the rate rises to $15, the ranks of the noncompliant will swell.
The only thing that saves us is that we don’t get all the government we pay for.