I have posted something similar to this message each of the past 4 years. The difference this time is the ravages of COVID-19.

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#minimumwage #smallbusiness #coronavirus #covid19 #unitedstates

I'm personally in favor of minimum wage increases, but would like them to happen in conjunction with other, tangible efforts to address the massive income disparity in our nation.

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The pandemic and its effects, sadly, have given us the best opportunity to actually try and make some positive changes, but as a nation we are squandering it. Business as usual was already harmful and unsustainable to too many -- why would we want to return to that?

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My company and I will continue to do what we can to absorb costs like these, but we were already operating on a razor's edge, and the way forward is not at all clear. After two months making just 2% of our sales from the same period in 2019 ...

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... our income during a month of shipping and curbside pickup has only increased to 24% of last year's numbers. (Please note that ALL OTHER NON-WAGE COSTS have increased between 2019 and 2020 as well, which means we're doing even worse than the above numbers would indicate.)

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This isn't just an issue here, it's everywhere. I don't know how to make people pay attention to this. Speeding toward reopening more fully, potentially allowing more people to become infected -- in the name of commerce? There are better ways to go about this.

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Anyway, this is just one small piece of the larger puzzle. Call attention to it, and do what you can.

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