10/02/07 Minimum Wage Increase

Minimum Wage Increase. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Depending on which side of the desk you sit on this may be good or bad news. The Washington State minimum wage is going up&again. Dan Fazio with Washington Farm Bureau. FAZIO: It's going to cost more to do business. I am happy that it only went up 1.8%. My figures were that it was going to go up a little more than that; 2 - 2.5% so I think we caught a break but by the same token you know as the wages go up, prices go up. On one hand having the highest minimum wage in the nation tends to draw in more workers but Fazio says the other side is higher prices. FAZIO: Consumers want to know that workers are well paid but they also want cheap food and they really can't have both. We really appreciate and hope that they buy Washington products at the store but they are going to cost a little bit more. Producers are struggling with having to pay the higher minimum wage but the prices paid for commodities remains the same. FAZIO: Most of our guys say where's the automatic raise of prices for us? Why don't prices go up? Why doesn't the government mandate that prices go up as well as wages? We keep pushing and eroding the margins and there's just no more slack left in the system. The minimum wage in Washington State will go to $8.07 on January 1 and is currently 35 cents higher than the federal minimum wage. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.