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Even before the pandemic, Elsa Rodriguez Killion realized that Casa Corona, her restaurant in Fresno, California, was going to have to change with the times.
She spent money on digital marketing. She invested in technology that enabled online orders for dishes like the restaurant’s signature chile verde. And there was something else she had to keep up with: California’s rising minimum wage.
The minimum rose to $14 an hour on Jan. 1, the fifth annual increase under a 2016 law. It is set to reach $15 for most employers by next year. With price increases, Rodriguez Killion was able to absorb some of the added payroll expense. But she also cut more than 20% of the 160 jobs at her restaurant’s two locations in the last five years, not including those lost because of the pandemic.
How a Minimum-Wage Increase Is Being Felt in a Low-Wage City
Is $15 an hour too much, or not enough? Fresno, Calif., may be a laboratory for a debate over the minimum wage that is heating up on the national level.
Elsa Rodriguez Killion, a Fresno restaurant owner, worries that California’s rising minimum wage will force her to cut jobs.Credit.Sarahbeth Maney for The New York Times
Published Feb. 14, 2021Updated Feb. 25, 2021
Even before the pandemic, Elsa Rodriguez Killion realized that Casa Corona, her restaurant in Fresno, Calif., was going to have to change with the times.
She spent money on digital marketing. She invested in technology that enabled online orders, for dishes like the restaurant’s signature chile verde. And there was something else she had to keep up with: California’s rising minimum wage.
Rental Prices Rose During Pandemic In Grand Rapids
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, many medium and large sized metropolitan areas in the United States saw a dip in rental prices as people left crowded cities for smaller towns. However, Grand Rapids and it s metro area saw just the opposite, an increase in rental pricing.
Since January of 2020, average rental prices have grown an estimated 3.8% year to year in Grand Rapids. According to a study by Apartment List, that sets rental prices to about:
Median One-Bedroom Rent: $868
Median Two-Bedroom Rent: $1,110
Those prices are pretty average compared to similarly sized cities, but the increase of 3.8% is well above the national average, which was actually a decrease of 1.5% in rental prices in 2020.