California is in the process of ratcheting up its minimum wage from $10 an hour to $15 by 2022, and the hikes are making it tough for small businesses to stay afloat. Just last week, the 25-year-old Roseville brick-and-mortar The Almost Perfect Bookstore was forced to close up shop and resort to online-only sales, citing California’s new wage hikes as a “major factor.” The bookstore was even profiled last year as one of the few to survive the rise of the Kindle, Amazon, and digital books.
Free two-day shipping couldn’t close Almost Perfect, but California’s march to $15 forced the store to close in less than a year.
The Almost Perfect Bookstore is not the only shattered small business left in the $15 minimum wage’s wake. In just the last week, we’ve identified stories of four more California businesses that have had to cut hours or close entirely because of the wage hike.
- Oakland’s Stag’s Luncheonette will be closing its doors at the end of this month, with the owner citing higher minimum wage and rising food cost.
- The iconic Pann’s of Los Angeles will be cutting its dinner service to offset the cost of the state’s rising minimum wage.
- Cafe Flora, another iconic eatery in the Castro District in San Francisco, is now for sale, with the owner also citing the rising minimum wage and cost of doing business in the city.
- Match Analysis, an Emeryville business which collects data on soccer matches, had to shed 13 jobs due to that city’s near-$15 minimum wage.
Such minimum wage hikes are happening throughout the country, and the consequences can be seen at The Faces of $15. Sadly, new stories are being added nearly every week.