April 9, 2021
When Andrea Grove opened her Harrisburg coffee shop, she budgeted a salary of $15 an hour for her employees.
That hourly rate is more than $7 above the federal and state minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and put Ms. Grove on one side of a years-long debate about whether the minimum wage should increase and, if so, by how much and how quickly.
Ms. Grove, who opened Elementary Coffee in 2014, ran into some of the problems business owners worry about when discussing a minimum wage increase. The $15 rate may limit the number of employees she can bring on board and it could prevent her from franchising the business or opening more locations across the state.