Before my life in radio, I worked in kitchens for years. Most of my teen and adult life, were spent toiling away for hours on end in a hot, sweaty, stressful environment. Kitchen work has it's rewards, but in the long haul of life, it's a tough job. Really. Name one old chef. At any rate, I was over-the-top excited when I was able to partner up with a friend to open my first restaurant.

Long story short, it only lasted about a year. It was in the Portland Public Market, and the facility was already in trouble when we opened. You live, you learn. A few years later, my wife and I bought into the Mr. Bagel franchise, and had a good run. So I feel I have a pretty good handle of both sides of the argument concerning minimum wage.

As of January, the new wage hike will go into effect. It's the next installment of a wage increase that is due to cap out in 2020 at $12 an hour, according to a post from WABI-TV 5. Before the increase was voted in by Mainers in 2016, the minimum wage had stalled at $7.50 an hour.

We can all agree that $7.50 is not a livable wage for anyone except a teenager living at home. However, the increase is quite a burden to business owners who are seeing their bottom line go up every year.

I suppose there's winners and losers on both sides, but even as a formwer business owner, it's nice to see folks get some money, that really need it. And since it's the people of our fine state that voted it in, one could easily point out that Mainers are simply taking care of Mainers.

 

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