Minimum Wage to Increase Friday
By: Mitch Carr
Updated: July 22, 2009
Folks earning minimum wage at their job will all get a raise starting friday.
The law requires minimum wage to jump $0.70 to $7.25 an hour. That's good for those who need the money, but for some local businesses that's a big hit on the payroll budget in a tough economy.
For example, United Supermarkets employs some 5,000 workers at minimum wage. Spokesman Eddie Owens said the company may have to tighten it's belt but that no job losses are expected.
"Our company's been very very blessed to be able to avoid layoffs of any kind really for a long long time now. In fact our last layoff was probably about 5 years ago and it was a very very small number of people, so I don't envision that happening at all," Owens said.
This increase is part of a law signed by President Bush in 2007.
