I run a small business, and I wanted to share some numbers with you. My wife and I are pretty liberal, and we pay our employees pretty well.
I have about 3 full timers, 2 of which are hourly at 19, and the last at $22 (MI). There's a reason for the difference, and it's not important to this discussion. The rest of the employees are 17, 16, 15, 14, around that ish, and there is about 16 of them. At that pay range. 2 of whom needed health insurance, which I am subsidizing because 2 people isn't enough for a group plan.
Each shift is 6 hours long, and since the teenagers have school during the day, some of them only work half shifts to bolster the busy times, so imagine the average 16yo employee works 3 3-hour evening shifts and 2 full weekend shifts.
I'm giving you all this information, because I'm informing you that even though 2022 was the most successful gross profit year since 1956, with $530k in gross revenue, vs 350k from last year, we were less profitable than every year as far back as 2013 as far as I can tell from tax forms.
The major difference is we paid out at least 100k more in labor this year than the previous, and paid out more in refunds and vet bills to customers because of mistakes by employees. Everything else got more expensive, even toilet paper. Some supplies octupled in cost for no discernable reason.
We had to raise prices, which we held off doing for 2 years.
Now, I will say we are very comfortable, and the higher pay I have bargained with to get a better crew, people who stick around, people who are fiercely loyal, and to whom we respect, and also quite frequently feed. Everyone has a 401k now (at least those who want one), and we found ways to cut down on a shit ton of HR/payroll costs by switching carriers.
I just want you all to understand that there are business owners out there who want to do the right thing by the people who work for them. We are constantly reminding them when they run errands or do anything that they need to log their hours, and if I didn't remind them, I'd have saved myself probably 6k in labor alone this year. I usually hand them my car keys so they don't have to put miles on their own vehicle or pay for gas.
Just understand the things you are demanding have a cost, and I wouldn't run a business any other way, personally, because I couldn't sleep at night if I did. I know we pay more and offer more than most businesses around here, we do that so we can be picky instead of desperate like my competition, but it does suck when I look at net profits every February.