Minimum wage rises 70¢

• Advocate staff and wire reports
• Published: Jul 24, 2008 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The federal minimum wage officially increased by 70 cents today, though several local businesses contacted Wednesday said they made adjustments months ago and the impact on their bottom line isn’t significant.

This, they said, is primarily because only a small percentage of their employees, mostly younger, entry-level workers, actually make the minimum wage, now at $6.55 per hour.

And for those making the minimum wage — about 2 million people nationally and 40,000 in Louisiana — they’re seeing it swallowed up by higher gas and food prices.

At 4.3 percent, Louisiana ranks high when it comes to the percentage of hourly workers at or below the minimum wage. It has 937,000 hourly workers, 40,000 of whom are at or below minimum wage. Other states ranking above the 4 percent range are Mississippi, Texas, South Carolina and Massachusetts, according to a federal Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

The increase, from $5.85 to $6.55 per hour, is the second of three annual increases required by a 2007 law. Next year’s boost will lift the federal minimum to $7.25 an hour.

Maxwell’s Market owner Ron Lewis said only a handful of the 50 employees at his two stores had their wages adjusted, and some of those may have only gone up a nickel an hour.

Ditto for Raising Cane’s chicken finger chain and Calandro’s Supermarket.

Craig Silvey, vice president of finance and information technology, said Cane’s decided about six weeks ago to bump up wages on some employees to stay competitive in hiring. He said the chain likes to keep some distance between what it pays its hourly workers and the minimum wage.

Blaise Calandro said Calandro’s Supermarket used to not have anyone at the minimum wage, but now, after it crept up, between 10 and 20 of the two-store supermarket chain’s 90 hourly workers got a bump.

Calandro said his store sets hourly wages a little higher than the averages posted by the National Grocers Association, but doesn’t agree the government should be dictating the entry-level pay, which he said mostly goes to teenagers on their first or second jobs.

Calandro said all costs are tough to absorb and that there will undoubtedly be some businesses who do more hiring at the minimum wage level.

“I’m sure it’s going to have a hard effect on them,” he said. “With us, we can tolerate it, but it’s getting to the point where it’s a pretty strong wage.”

Cane’s and Maxwell’s agree all costs are felt, but said that in the current climate, a bump in the wages of some hourly workers doesn’t rank very high.