Easy to say, hard to do.
We have a job available that is basically folding and boxing t-shirts. The individual does have to call the customer and let them know their order is ready for pick up. Monkey work.
We used to pay $8 an hour to high schoolers or college kids looking for part time work. We now have to pay $10.50 an hour, which it really isn't worth. Worse, other youth friendly jobs (national franchises) are offering $13 to $15 an hour to start. Funny thing, those employers have become really picky and many kids put in their applications, only to find some middle aged person has taken the job. The problem is that the kids really think $15 an hour is now what they deserve.
Increasing wages to a minimum of $15 an hour would increase our payroll by about 20%, or about 3% of our gross revenues. With a net profit of about 10%, that 3% is painful, so we raise our prices.
The problem is, everyone in our supply chain is doing the same thing, because they all have the same problem. We recalculated our prices taking into consideration the announced price increases. If we just increase to cover costs and keep the same profit in dollars, we need to increase our prices by about 12%. If we want to keep the same profit percentage, the increase in our prices will have to be nearly 20%.
Multiply this by all companies, and all suppliers, and combine it with the dropping value of the dollar due to excessive Federal spending, and you have a cataclysmic disaster that will "reset" our economy.
Fasten your seatbelts...
Don’t pay and go out of business. Then learn to code.