AGAWAM, Mass.

(WGGB/WSHM) - A rise to Massachusetts’ minimum wage will start in

2023, bringing the base pay in the commonwealth to $15 dollars an hour. However,
time-and-a-half pay for Sundays and holidays will come to an end, so will this impact
local businesses?

This $0.75 increase will help workers combat the costs of inflation, but this could also
put mom and pop shops in a bad spot.

Starting January 1st, minimum wage across the Commonwealth will rise again from
$14.25 an hour to $15 an hour. This is the final wage hike approved by the legislature as
part of the 2018 grand bargain law.

However, while wages are going up, time-and-a-half pay for working on Sundays and
holidays is going away.

Kate Gourde is shopkeeper for Coopers Gifts in Agawam. She told Western Mass News
that, while her business is ready, it is a give-and-take.

“What hurts on one hand, on the other hand, will help a little bit, too,” she said. “What we
weren’t expecting was the inflation that we’re all dealing with, and it kind of has
everybody reeling, so to have the additional minimum wage increase on top of the
inflation just makes about everything a little bit harder.”

However, not all businesses in the commonwealth may be as prepared to write higher
paychecks. We spoke with National Federation of Independent Business’
Massachusetts State Director Carl Carlozzi, who said that small businesses could not
see the expenses that came with recent years coming and combat them like a big-box
store.

“Going into 2023, they have had a tough couple of years. They’ve had to deal with all
sorts of challenges, all sorts of hurdles from inflation to labor shortages to supply chain
disruptions, and adding additional costs to them becomes problematic,” Carlozzi said.
“Small businesses can only charge so much before people stop buying a pizza or buying
a burger or going out to eat or go shopping.”

He suggested that the government gives small businesses a break.

“Legislators kind of pausing after this and saying, ‘Well, this is the last increase. Let’s not
vote to do anymore additional increases in the minimum wage going into this new
session until we give small businesses a little bit of a breather,’” Carlozzi said.
However, Karl Petrick, associate dean and economic professor at Hult International
Business School said that this little boost can help families keep up with rising costs
and boost the economy.

“Over 800,000 workers benefited, over the last four years, have benefitted over this wage
increase,” he told us. “That’s about a quarter of the Massachusetts state workforce, and
about one in five children are in households that have benefitted from the wage
increases, and to be honest with you, most years apart from the last two, wages are
going up and inflation was low. This was really a good thing guaranteed for workers.”

Professor Petrick added that Massachusetts is not the only state that worked towards
higher pay for its minimum wage workers.

“We’re one of twenty-seven states raising our minimum wage. We’re one of the first to
get to the $15 an hour target,” he said. “Other states are going to get there. It’s just going
to take them a little bit longer because they started a little bit later.”

With the base pay uptick, Massachusetts will continue to have one of the highest base
pays in the United States.