Back from a 10 Day trip to Spain.
Our son and his GF met us in Barcelona. We Al drove down the coast - met up w a UK friend for drinks and a small hike the next day.
Then drove to Gibraltar and ended up in Madrid - where we were able to see an exchange student we hosted way back in 2005.
Great to see them.
Life goes waaaaayyyyy too fast. Gotta enjoy them while you can.
Inflation is an insipid form of theft and I get why people are pissed off.
But these minimum wage ideas are terrible.
Wrote this today:
A Small Business Owner’s Perspective on Michigan’s Minimum Wage Increase
As a pizza shop owner in Michigan with multiple stores, I’ve been dealing with the realities of the new minimum wage law firsthand. Starting January 1, 2026, Michigan’s minimum wage rose from $12.48 to $13.73 per hour—a $1.25 increase—with another jump to $15 scheduled for 2027.
For employers like me, that $1.25 hourly bump doesn’t just mean the base pay. Add in the employer’s share of FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare), and the true cost per hour is closer to $1.35. In my stores, we sell around 400 items a week and typically schedule 100–170 hours per week, averaging about 150 hours. With wage compression—where raises for entry-level workers (often teens starting out) ripple up to more experienced staff—that translates to roughly $200 extra per week in labor costs per store.
On top of direct payroll, indirect costs are rising too. Suppliers will pass on their own higher labor expenses, driving up the price of ingredients and everything else we buy.
To offset this, I raised prices a bit.
$1 on several sizes of pizzas, subs, and salads—which could help us break even, especially since pizza remains relatively affordable (a large pizza and 2-liter soda can still feed a family of four for about $35).
But for bars and restaurants, it’s much tougher. A family outing for burgers and drinks can already hit $60 even with just water, leaving little room to raise prices without losing customers. Many marginal operations will have to absorb the costs, cut elsewhere, or risk closing.
So what does this mean for low-wage workers? In my experience, many part-time employees (25–35 hours/week) prefer flexibility over full-time hours, even when overtime is available. A full-time (40 hour) worker might see an extra $50 gross per week from the raise, netting perhaps $35–40 after taxes.
But low-wage workers will not see a real increase in their purchasing power. That entire net gain will be eaten up—and more—by higher prices on the everyday things they buy.
Their pizza is going to cost more. Their hamburgers are going to cost more. The laundromat, which many lower income use all the time, is going to cost more. Car repairs—especially on the older, higher-maintenance vehicles that lower-income folks often drive—are going to cost more. Groceries, bus fares, childcare: everything touched by labor costs (which is everything) will go up.
Thousands of hours will be trimmed across businesses, and automation like kiosks and robotics will accelerate even faster, costing jobs in the process.
Nationwide, these 2026 state increases are projected to add about $5 billion in total wages for over 8.3 million workers. Yet workers themselves will see no net benefit— in fact, many will lose ground as costs rise faster than their take-home pay.
Governments (federal, state, and local) stand to collect an estimated $1.5–2.5 billion more in taxes annually from the higher payrolls—money that, as usual, will largely be wasted.
In the end, the biggest winners will be policymakers who can claim they’re “helping” workers—gaining political support—while the economic spiral continues downward for small businesses and the very people these laws are supposed to assist.
