Delaware businesses say minimum wage increase may be better for the future rather than now

DELAWARE- A bill to gradually raise the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour by 2025 is in the Delaware Assembly right now.

Business owners we spoke with said passing this piece of legislation during a pandemic may not be the greatest idea.

“I don’t think you’re going to get a huge fight over raising it from a lot of us, however I do feel pretty strong that today is not the time to raise it,” Steve Montgomery, owner of The Starboard, said.

The owners of two Delaware businesses said they see how raising the minimum wage could be beneficial.

Especially, to employees who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

“They probably want to get back to work more than anything and just have an income,” Adrian Mobilia, owner of Salted Vines Vineyard, said.

But on the flip side, those employers said an increase in minimum wage might lead to a decrease in the amount of people they can hire.

“When you get to a wage mandatory that high, you eliminate being able to hire young kids and that’s what our industry here at the beach is about,” Montgomery said.

They added that possible decrease in help could drive employers toward automating some jobs.

“The help I have in the cellar and out in the vineyard, we would have to start looking to buying machines to mechanize processes,” Mobilia said.

But despite the challenges that could come with a possible minimum wage increase, business owners said law makers should get different perspectives from all sides of the equation before they start making decisions.

“People are probably more than ever to talk about that right now that I would hope the political people would use this as a time to talk with the farmers, the restaurant all those industries that are effected,” Montgomery said.