I worked for a medium sized manufacturer in upstate NY for about 7 years. I just heard the state of NY is mandating a raise of minimum pay to $15/hour. I don't think the company will be able to continue to manufacture product here in the US, or at least not in NY. There's about 150 people working there which means an extra $1,500,000/year in pure payroll alone, plus increased taxes and workers comp and everything else that goes along with those payrolls. I believe that will put the company in the negative. Prices cannot be sufficiently raised to compensate because of cheap product coming in from China, they're having a hard time competing as it is. I imagine there's a lot of businesses out there in the same situation, especially small and medium ones.
|