11 Feb 2021
Lockdowns have crippled movie theaters due to the coronavirus. Now the industry faces further financial troubles as the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats seek another hike in the minimum wage and the $15 an hour proposal is weighing heavily on the minds of theater owners across the country.
“That would kill us,” Byron Berkley, owner of Foothills Entertainment in Kilgore, Texas, told
Variety. “We couldn’t justify raising our admission prices and concession prices to compensate for that kind of increase and still expect people to patronize the business. It would be disastrous.”
Berkley’s part-time employees make $8 an hour in keeping with the state’s minimum wage. But the theater owner says that a wage hike of nearly double would put them out of business.