The City Council is evaluating the current minimum wage. The Chamber is seeking your help in providing the City with local data to best identify the impacts of a possible minimum wage increase on your business.

23 businesses located within the Half Moon Bay City limits responded to the survey, their responses are below in the chart.

We are still struggling to keep up with the last raise! I can’t believe you are thinking about this. We are barely making it as it is. This would close us. Can’t you see all the businesses closing? One is going out this month! If this happens, 8 employees will be without jobs, because we will be forced to close. Have you spoken to business owners on Main Street?! At ALL? I can name 4 owners who have said they they haven’t been able to pay rent in 2/3 months! Thank god for the kind landlords – or we would already be closed. Same 4 owners are still paying for their goods from LAST YEAR!!! Many businesses will not be able to tolerate this.

– Retailer

That’s a hard one! Although I don’t feel that my employee is valued at $19 an hour, others are. My type of work is also easy for a high schooler, and they are not worth 19/hr

– Retailer

We’re one of several businesses downtown that are barely hanging on. The economy is down, people are spending less and inflation has pushed our rents up. Please consider doing more to help local businesses survive now so we’ll be able pay higher wages in the future.

– Retailer

Honestly, this would be crippling to businesses. Plus at our business employees get tips so they are making decent money and having us pay a higher minimum would make it difficult to survive. Cost of Goods are already making prices sky rocket and consumers will not buy in HMB if I have to raise prices higher and they can buy online for less. Where is the incentive to work hard if raises are just given out every year?? We like to give raises and promote from within for staff that earns it.

– Restaurant

Didn’t we already have a minimum wage increase earlier this year? I’d have to pass the cost on to customers or close because we’re barely getting by as it is. Locals already complain that restaurant prices are high and it’s just for the tourists so I hope the city council has plans to do something to bring more tourists here to make up for the locals that stop coming because of the higher prices.

– Restaurant

I applaud increases to minimum wage. It is so hard to keep staff and so much time and energy is wasted recruiting and training new staff, it is cheaper to pay more. FYI living wage in SMC according to MIT is $32/hour!

– Nonprofit

I would seek additional donor income and grants to cover any shortfall. I am in favor of paying our staff a living wage.

– Nonprofit

You know Half Moon Bay has changed a lot since the pandemic. A lot of business will suffer this increase.

– Restaurant

This would be a brutal increase. I would undoubtedly have to cut back on employee hours as I couldn’t solely increase prices enough to compensate for the added expense, in addition to the additional payroll taxes, not to mention the affect on the cost of worker’s comp insurance! Small businesses in small towns already have a reputation for being more expensive (even if it’s not always true), so passing the increase on to the consumer would likely encourage customers to shop online at larger retailers with better prices.

– Retail

At $19/hr minimum wage I would have to raise the prices on our menu once again to accommodate. Our customers would stop coming after paying $30 per dish and $10 per drink. Employee’s making over minimum wage would also want an increase. Inflation is out of control & CA prop 12 with pork/bacon and egg prices already up 200% from last year plus to add increased cost of rent, utilities, tax, ect. This would hurt tax revenue long term for the city with all business either shutting their doors or moving elsewhere.

– Restaurant

While there is a need to increase base pay to align better with cost of living it is disingenuous to expect this starting pay to be what we pay high schoolers whom we prepare, in part, for their next posts. A two tier system is needed with a lower starting pay for inexperienced employees.

– Retail

Sales at my shop in 2023 are 50% below 2022 levels, and, in fact, 2023 is the worst year we’ve ever had. If the minimum wage is increased to $19/hour, I will have no other choice but to close.

– Retail

I support this move entirely.

– Retal

Can’t believe the city is even considering this. There will be a ripple effect I don’t think they understand. If the min wage was grossly low it’d be different, but this is taking things to an unnecessary extreme. Effectively this will move middle class closer to the poverty level by making their pay the same, while the wealthy still sit pretty at the top. Even though it would seem like it’s helping the poor, long term it’s actually hurting everyone but the rich far more.

– Retail

I honestly don’t know what we’d do. We are a service and focused on this area, but this would be VERY hard to absorb.

– Nonprofit

I think it’s incredibly important that we have a minimum wage that all types of business can afford, so as a community, we can bring on young, inexperienced, or workers with other barriers to employment to entry-level positions, particularly those positions that would allow those workers to achieve a living wage over time. Another minimum wage hike on all businesses across-the-board create huge barriers to the many businesses that our community relies on, such as hospitality, small scale retail, food service, child care, elder care… the list goes on. In our particular business, we have no way to pass the cost on to our customers other than significantly higher prices on products considered essential, and that have already increased in cost exponentially in the last couple of years.

A $19 an hour minimum wage would absolutely be a barrier to our hiring someone young and/or inexperienced. At that rate of pay we could only consider taking on and training someone with a track record, eliminating opportunities for many people in our community to get a toe hold in the working world. I would be very reluctant to hire someone still in high school, or a local student, and that would be a big bummer.

A minimum wage hike would also mean that I would, as an ethical business owner, be compelled to raise wage bands for everyone else in my organization, which we cannot afford to do. For us a minimum wage increase now would mean cutting back the hours of our existing staff to accommodate the new wage bands, and forgo any new hires for the foreseeable future.

It’s important to remember that a minimum wage and a living wage are not the same thing. Everyone who is a responsible business owner knows that keeping good workers at minimum wage indefinitely is a zero sum game. Every responsible business owner I know in this community is working their tails off to ensure that their workers have a pathway to a living wage. None of us are in a position to turn the tide on the unbearably high cost of living that is largely driven by the housing market. Raising the minimum wage again, this soon after the last hike, only adds to and exacerbates the problem.

– Service

We would have to cut the hours of the high schoolers we have on staff. They’re learning how to work efficiently and are not worth $19.

– Retail

I am in agreement with the proposal to raise minimum wage to $19/hour. Living on the coastside is expensive and in order to retain workers who LIVE HERE, we must pay them accordingly. Otherwise, we are not supporting our own locals and they will eventually be forced to move out of the community. Consequently, we will end up hiring people living outside of the community and therefore commuting to the coast for work, which is not good for them, not good for us, and not good for our roads.

– Retail

Most of my staff is making $19.00 an hour. I have a few high school students who work 2 – 8 hours a week making minimum wage. If they need to make $19, then I need to raise my staff that is making a few dollars over minimum wage to $22. Then I need to raise the ones that are making a larger amount even higher. Taxes on each of them will also rise.

I can’t afford that. Instead I will have to let my high schoolers and the few that come back for vacation times during college go. I just dealt with this not long ago. Does the city plan on a $3 raise plus 3% every few years? I just need to know how long until I am completely priced out.

– Retail