A $15 minimum wage is 'daunting'
Seattle just passed a $15 minimum wage bill, and San Francisco will vote on one in November. It's a hot topic among lawmakers around the country, and business owners are concerned.
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My baggers would have to go
- Name: Ken Casaccio
- Business: Leamington Foods
- Location : Chicago
Ken Casaccio, 54, runs Leamington Foods, a grocery business that's been in his family for more than 90 years.
Casaccio has six or seven grocery baggers in each of his three supermarkets. He starts them at minimum wage, which is $8.25 an hour in Illinois, and bumps them up to $8.50 an hour after 30 days. A group of Chicago aldermen have proposed boosting the city's minimum wage to $15.
"$15 would eliminate my baggers," he said. It it wouldn't make sense to hire inexperienced workers -- many of whom are teenagers -- at $15 an hour.
Casaccio said this could hurt the neighborhood, since his main store is in a poverty-stricken part of the city, where it's hard to find any job.
- Last updated August 05 2014 05:05 PM ET
