Jay Dickey: “I would like to talk in opposition to the minimum wage increase from the standpoint of what business would have to say…”

“I would like to talk in opposition to the minimum wage increase from the standpoint of what business would have to say about this. I do not know if that has been brought into this discussion. Mr. Speaker, I am an employer, I am a restaurant owner, I own two different restaurants in Pine Bluff, AR, as well as being a politician. This is 100 percent politics that we are talking about here and not any of economy or not any from consideration of the people who are involved. I first want to say that the people who pay the price of the minimum wage are the consumers. They do it in one of two ways. They either pay a higher price or they pay with less service when they go to purchase things and they go into the marketplace. What people do not understand and what may need to be clarified in this discussion is what goes into the higher price. If you are in the restaurant business, you think, well, the labor that you have to pay is all that you would experience. There is the tax, the additional tax, the payroll tax that comes from the additional pay. But there is also another factor, and it kind of compounds, and that is that the lettuce that is bought from the store or brought in is going to be at a higher cost because of the minimum wage. The meat, the condiments, all of the things that go into making the product are going to be higher. So the restaurant owner or the business owner is sitting, looking, and thinking, what is the consumer able to stand?”