IJR: Brian Hibbs, the owner and operator of Comix Experience, is having a difficult time confronting the reality presented by San Francisco’s new minimum wage law. The law passed in November by a huge majority requires that wages increase, as of May 1st, to $12.25 and will end up at $15 by 2018.
Anticipating only a slight increase in his costs, Hibbs was originally supportive of the law. But, then he did the math: I was appalled! My jaw dropped. Eighty-thousand a year! I didn’t know that. I thought we were talking a small amount of money, something I could absorb.
We’re for a living wage, for a minimum wage, in principle. . . . But I think any law that doesn’t look at whether people can pay may not be the best way to go.
The problem he faces is that comic books and graphic novels, the cornerstone of the business, have their retail prices printed on the covers, so he can’t raise those prices to offset the increase in costs. Also, his store’s usually staffed by only one counter worker, which makes reducing the store’s labor costs impossible.
The solution he’s come up with is to start a special club with an annual fee of $240, whose members will get special perks.
His comments and his business’ story drew the attention of a local news station, which reported on Comix Experience and another local book store, Borderlands Books, which has resorted to crowdfunding in order to generate extra revenue.
With that publicity, customers have directly commented to Comix Experience on the wage change: ‘I’m hearing from a lot of customers, ‘I voted for that, and I didn’t realize it would affect you.’
Hibbs is a self-identified progressive, but he’s looking for answers. Then he asked a profound question: Why can’t two consenting people make arrangements for less than x dollars per hour? He admits to believing in capitalism, and according National Review, he’d “like to have the market solve this problem.”
h/t Weasel Zippers
DCG
