Some
Enid restaurant owners believe raising minimum wage will effect them
little because they currently pay more than minimum wage. Terry
Washburn, owner of Pak-A-Sak, says the hike in minimum wage won’t be a
factor at his business. “It isn’t going to effect me because we start
my employees at higher than the raised minimum wage,” Washburn said.
Theresa Holt, owner and manager of The Wooden Nickel, doesn’t think that raising the minimum wage will effect her either. “Most of the people I have already make more than that. I have no idea how it is going to effect me,” said Holt.
Steve
Biddle, owner of McDonald’s in Enid and Alva, agrees the wage increase
will have little im-pact.“It is going to have some effect, but it is
going to be minimal because we pay over (minimum wage for) 90 percent
of our employees. We only hire kids that are 15 and just coming into
the work place minimum wage. We consider that a training wage. They get
an in-crease after their training and re-view,” said Biddle, “Minimum
wage pay has been pretty been much eliminated in Enid and Garfield
county. You can’t hire at minimum wage here.”
Wash-burn
said he isn’t going to raise wages for employees immediately with the
minimum wage raise. “I’m waiting to see what the market is going to do.
If places like us are raising the wages to the point that I have to
raise it to keep my employees I will. I really don’t know yet how that
is going to effect me,” said Washburn.
The restaurant owners all agree hiring will not be a problem. Washburn said hiring is tough now because of employment rates. “The only issue we are having (is) the market. There aren’t as many people in need of jobs, at this time, as there are jobs,” said Washburn.Holt does not think changing the minimum wage will effect her hiring practices. “I don’t think it will change it at all. I don’t think that changing minimum wage will really effect whether people around here want a job or not,” said Holt. Biddle agrees the job market has more say on hiring than minimum wage. “It definitely won’t have an impact on our hiring. There are more jobs in the work place than people to fill them,” said Biddle.
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