Hopes and fears raised in rural West Virginia by push for $15 minimum wage – By Jason Lange, Makini Brice (Reuters) / Mar 17 2021
(Reuters) – At the Custard Stand restaurant in Webster Springs, West Virginia, Angie Cowger worries Democrats’ goal of raising the hourly minimum wage to $15 would be the death knell for her business.
FILE PHOTO: Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) speaks after winning his 2018 midterm election in Charlestown, West Virginia, U.S., November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/
Roughly half her employees make about $9 an hour. Cowger can’t imagine raising prices on hot dogs and ice cream by enough to cover $15, so she would expect to lay off workers, perhaps having customers place orders on a screen rather than with a cashier.
“I don’t know our customer base would support that,” Cowger said of her rural town of about 700 people. “We’re in a town that has only one red light in the whole county.”
While an effort to raise the national minimum wage from its current $7.25 level without Republican votes was blocked in the Senate this month, congressional Democrats have signaled they plan to try again.
