On Monday, August 25, the Longmont City Council hosted a “fishbowl” conversation focused on the topic of minimum wage. The discussion included two sessions: one with employees and employee representatives, and another with small business owners.
The Downtown Development Authority (LDDA) and the Chamber collaborated closely with business owners and City staff to ensure business perspectives were shared.
With permission—and anonymously—I’m also sharing a letter from a small business owner that was submitted to City Council regarding the minimum wage discussion.
At this time, it’s not yet clear whether City Council will formally consider changes to the minimum wage. However, I encourage you to listen to what your fellow business owners had to say and continue to share your thoughts with the Chamber. We remain actively engaged with City Council and our economic partners as this conversation evolves.
If you have questions about the Chamber’s current work or position on this issue, please feel free to reach out to me directly.
Click here to watch the Fishbowl
– Scott Cook, CEO Longmont Chamber
Forgive the long letter—I’m not a concise thinker or writer, so I appreciate your time in reading this.
I don’t envy your position. Affordability is an issue across the state and Longmont has long been a refuge of affordability in a state of rising prices and it seems to have finally caught up with us. The economy (especially recently) is volatile. Given that volatility, it’s nearly impossible to predict how a local wage hike will ripple through our city. I can only speak from personal experience—what it means for my business and household—but I imagine it’s even more complex when you lack concrete data from the businesses in Longmont.
Some businesses like ours have learned to model the impact of increases after navigating yearly hikes since opening. Others go on instinct. But whether based on numbers or gut, they’ll respond in the way they operate, on numbers or gut or a mixture of both. That’s a factor that is entirely unpredictable without speaking to the business owners personally. So I urge you do so…but if you want true transparency from them, please do so NOT in a public forum.
I’ve spoken to MANY owners who are afraid to speak publicly. We all know how a business can lose customers in the court of public opinion and business owners are rightfully cautious about how they are perceived. These are folks who care deeply about their employees and live modestly, with their life savings tied up in their business. They worry one decision could wipe that out. Also given that most small business owners are getting insurance through the ACA and will lose subsidies this coming year, many are facing a massive personal financial burden this coming year (we are expecting a $12,000 a year increase for our medical insurance, and this isn’t even good medical insurance.)
These are people who don’t know how to say “this might break us” without being accused of exaggerating. Or how to say “I don’t want to lay anyone off” without being labeled selfish for not just “figuring it out”. And many are already at their breaking point. And they certainly don’t want to say “I already do so much and you’re asking me to give more.” which are all things I’ve heard personally. We regularly joke about the joys of just quitting and getting a job at Home Depot.
I know their threats of closing or moving their businesses out of town sound hollow, but I can assure you they are not. This is a weekly discussion for us in the context of minimum wage increases and we have a healthy business in comparison to many I’ve talked to. Moving a business to a town that is giving massive incentives with more business-friendly wages, like Loveland or facing financial ruin in Longmont isn’t a decision I want to make. I love this town. But also I’m not going to just go forward into bankruptcy if the numbers don’t make sense.
These business owners could really use a City Council that is on their side….I’m only sort of joking when I say give your local business owner a hug. It’s rough out there and they truly are passionate about being a valued part of this community and a good boss and employer.
That being said, I get that this isn’t just about business owners—it’s about affordability in Longmont. And I respect that challenge and the desire to take care of the lowest paid among us so that they can afford to live and work in this town. (Most of my minimum wage earning staff live here, and I like to hire locals!)
If I believed the economy could absorb more inflation, I’d say go for trying a more dramatic minimum wage increase. But this year in particular, we’re already seeing customer behavior shift: for example, where someone used to order an app, meal, and drink—they now skip the drink. We’ve raised prices to cover rising costs, but our sales stay fairly flat because people adjust what they buy to the price point they are comfortable with. We are seeing more people splitting meals, ordering water, skipping the appetizer. I think we’ve reached a sort of cap to people’s tolerance of higher prices here in Longmont. This is new. Over the many years we’ve been in business we have not seen this sort of consumer capping. It is a unique time and likely tied to consumer lack of confidence, rather than actual financial issues…yet.
Which makes me wonder what are our other choices to maintain profitability (which for us means to break even)? If the main tool we’ve been using is price increases?
We have already eliminated a salaried role when someone left this year—because we simply couldn’t afford to replace them. How many other jobs will we need to eliminate to make the business model work? How much automation to permanently replace well paying jobs do we need to implement to make it work?
We have fired our cleaning service entirely. It was gut wrenching as we knew this could mean their team was losing their jobs. How many other services will we have to eliminate impacting other small local businesses?
We try to buy from local suppliers, but inflation forces the tough decisions on whether to abandon our “shop local” mantra and start looking at reducing costs just to survive. I don’t want to do it, it goes against everything I believe in. How many other local businesses will be impacted if I am forced to do so to keep my doors open?
I would love to be MORE environmentally sustainable in our business operations, but we no longer have the luxury of the extra income to make those choices.
We have given less to charity. We used to give upwards of $10,000 a year. This year was a fraction of that. Also gut-wrenching as we know that they are struggling too and rely on small businesses like ours for donations. How much are local non-profits struggling given the economic challenges small businesses are facing and their reliance on us for participation in fundraising?
So the question we are facing is when does the business model just no longer work because of consumer tolerance and cost of wages? It’s a very real consideration we face depending on your decisions.
It’s a lot, I know, but I hope you are listening and considering what other options you might find to help with affordability of housing in Longmont that may be less damaging and more predictable. And hopefully more of a win for Longmont as a whole.