How One Small Business is Debunking Nearly Every Lie Republicans Tell About Raising the Minimum Wage

Every single time a push to raise the minimum wage gets going, the American people are subjected to the same old propaganda from Republicans. It’s bad for job creation, hurts small businesses, stifles growth, causes businesses to actually cut jobs – you know, the usual nonsense that never happens.

And the way I look at it is if a business can’t afford to pay its employees a decent wage (at least enough to survive on) then they’re probably not a sustainable business to start with – or so poorly run that they can’t prioritize spending properly.

Well, a local Minnesota business is essentially debunking nearly every talking point Republicans use against raising the minimum wage.

Before Minnesota passed a law raising the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2016, Punch Pizza decided to make the bold move to raise their minimum wage to $10 per hour. This represented a $2.5 million investment over a decade for the company.

Co-owner of Punch Pizza John Puckett is also two weeks from opening store number nine in the state, just six months after he made that $2.5 million investment by raising employee wages.

“We are hiring 50 new people and it’s a million dollar investment. We’ve seen a big jump in sales and I think part of that is because people feel connected to the investment we are making,” Puckett said.

“Most importantly, we have a stack of applications at each store for people who want to work at Punch Pizza,” Puckett said.

Also just applying a little common sense I would say that when more people are wanting to work for a particular company because that business offers better wages, that company then has the ability to hire better employees.

Puckett might also consider the fact that employees who are well paid tend to be more productive. They work harder, they’re more reliable, call in sick less and are usually more loyal.

And all of that tends to result in happier customers – which usually translates into an increase in revenue and repeat business.

So here we have a small business deciding to raise its wages, leading to more loyal and happier employees. This has also brought about an increase in sales, which has resulted in the ability for the company to expand and grow.

There goes that whole right-wing rhetoric about “raising the minimum wage punishes small businesses, hurts growth and eliminates jobs.”

But, as with most things, the typical conservative belief on an issue is based more off of whatever Fox News tells them to believe rather than actual facts or reality.