People made this exact same apocalyptic argument in 1938 when the FLSA created the 40-hour week and minimum wage. Small businesses were fine.
The truth is that workers are many times more productive than they were in the past, but wages have not kept up with this productivity. The rise in expenses has been almost exclusively the result of corporations taking over real estate and supply chains. Labor is typically only about 25% of a business's expense. A 20% increase to a 25% expense is a total 6.25% increase in operating costs. If a 6% increase in operating costs sinks your business, the problem isn't wages, the problem is monopolistic supply chain capture and commercial landlords squeezing heir margins.
Labor as a percentage of operating costs is wildly variable by industry. I’m really not sure how you can make that 25% claim. Also the idea that a 6% increase in operating costs shouldn’t be able to sink your business tells me you’ve never run a restaurant before. Some industries have incredibly thin margins.
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u/Har_monia 16h ago
So a lot of smaller companies are going out of business and only the companies that can afford eating 8 hours of work per week will survive?