Youth will not be served in minimum-wage increase says Markham business owner
Those under 18 won't get hired as wages jump from $10.90 to $13.15 as of Jan. 1 says boss

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 16, 2018
Tim Kelly
For Flavours of Unionville shop owner Tony Lamanna, the real losers in the minimum wage increase will be young employees.

Those under the age of 18 will be punished by the big increase in wages mandated by the provincial government on Jan. 1, believes Lamanna, also president of the Unionville Business Improvement Association.

Those under 18 saw their wages jump from a mandated $10.90 per hour to at least $13.15 as of Jan. 1 and for Lamanna, who now must pay those 18 and older $14 per hour, the 85 cents an hour difference is too little to make it worth it to hire youngsters.

“If you train them at that kind of money ($13.15 an hour) and they jump ship, you’re really screwed,” said Lamanna, who runs his seasonal business from 155 Main St., Unionville.

“I’m thinking I’ll try and hire more mature people because then they can start working right away. The real losers are the entry-level young people that the government hasn’t thought about,” Lamanna said.

Lamanna has operated Flavours of Unionville for the past 24 years. He said he employs about 12 workers, full- and part-time. Nearly all are on minimum wage, he said, except for a manager and assistant manager, who make a little more.

Lamanna said the minimum-wage hike will add nearly 21 per cent to his bottom line costs. He said the increase in wages is a “double-edged sword” when added to the increased prices he’ll face this spring because suppliers of products like gelato, ice cream and yogurt charge 5 to 7 per cent more each year too.

“And the suppliers will be stuck with the increased labour costs from the minimum-wage increase as well,” he said.

As to how he will deal with the increased costs, Lamanna said he has spent a lot of time thinking about it recently.

“I open up in April and I suspect it’s going to be about a 10 to 15 per cent increase overall. I’ll probably have to absorb some of the losses, I’ll probably have to cut some hours, I’ll probably have to cut young staff. My prices will have to increase a little bit and  my wife and I might have to work a little more than usual … it’s going to be tough for sure,” he said.

As to how much his prices will increase, Lamanna said not much.

“There is only a certain price point that people will pay for a treat,” he said.

"Maybe the big chains can do that (raise their prices) but the smaller entrepreneur, the mom and pop shops, the specialty shops don’t have that type of power. You can charge whatever you want but then nobody buys it and that’s no good either."

“People will say 'OK, I’ll buy a tub at home and feed the kids at home,” added Lamanna about a price increase that is too high for customers to deal with.

He believes the minimum-wage increase was too much and came too quickly.

“The government should have started working on this two or three years ago when the economy was humming,” he said.