The state minimum wage hikes in recent years is having an impact on businesses in Chautauqua County, especially smaller ones.

Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello said he can speak from experience as a small business owner involved with beachfront hospitality and tourism in Sunset Bay with his wife, Kelly. He said the 70-cent a year raise that has been occurring since 2017 and will continue through 2021 has caused them to reduce their staff at the seasonal ice cream and T-shirt business.

“Because of the increase, we used to have two employees in the ice cream parlor and one or two in the shirt shop. Now (because of the increase in minimum wage) we blow a hole in the wall so (the two businesses) are connected and reduced the number of people working there,” he said. “We are looking at a 10 percent increase in the cost of operations just because of the increase in minimum wage.”

Borrello said it is also political rhetoric when politicians who support the increase in minimum wage state that it is helping families. He said most of the people making minimum wage are high school or college seasonal workers or people just starting their careers at a young age.

“Ninety-nine percent are people not trying to raise a family on minimum wage,” he said. “What happens (when the minimum wage increases) the U.S. Department of labor statistics shows that unemployment goes up. It does truly make (New York state) uncompetitive being that we are right across from Pennsylvania where the minimum wage is at the federal level of $7.25 and we are at $11.10.”

Sam Teresi, Jamestown mayor, said he has heard from businesses that the increases in minimum wage has had an unattended impact of making jobs in Jamestown more attractive to Pennsylvania residents.

“What I understand it has increased the labor pool in the Jamestown area,” he said. “One thing the minimum wage has done on this side of the border is it has expanded the labor pool by making jobs in the city more attractive to Pennsylvania residents.”

Teresi said when it comes to the day-to-day operations, especially during the summer when part-time and seasonal employees are hired to maintain parks and work for the Public Works Department, the increase in minimum wage puts pressure on city government’s cost structure.

“We have to work hard to find people to come to work for us in part-time and seasonal jobs because we have to keep up with the private market. A lot of fast food restaurants are paying more than minimum wage. We’ve have had several people take jobs for the city than informed us they were going to a fast food restaurant or a retailer because they are paying more than minimum wage,” Teresi said. “It has made our life more difficult in what is an already tight labor pool.”

Todd Tranum, Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive officer and Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier executive director, said he has heard from a lot of smaller businesses that because of the minimum wage hikes that they had to pass on their cost to consumers.

“They have to figure out a way to pass that cost on or absorb if they cannot pass it on,” he said. “I hear anecdotal stories of them not being able to hire, which is a way they absorb some of these cost.”

Courtney Curatolo, Small Business Development Center director, said small businesses will be impacted due to the increase in labor costs due to the increase in the minimum wage.

“This is particularly an issue in Western New York since our surrounding states have lower minimum wages, Ohio and Pennsylvania,” she said. “Some businesses will be looking at ways to decrease labor hours in order to cut some of their costs, which will have a negative impact on many employees and the cost of living.”