I think what OP is complaining about is that 15$ an hour is a "living wage" for them. I don't know about the US, but where I come from, 15$ an hour (or its equivalent) would be luxury wage. I survive quite easily on about 11.50$ an hour.

If you can't pay your employees a proper wage then you don't deserve to be in business.

I'm sorry OP, that's a tough situation

All of you complaining about how he runs his business, I’d like to see you do better. Would you rather he give his employees a wage of Zero? As in unemployed?

OP, I find it hard to understand exactly how you live on $20 a day as you claim unless you have free living arrangements and transportation. That makes the rest of the story a bit suspicious to me. Short version: if things are as you claim, then your business is failing. Scale back until it can survive.

I had a small business (hobby store) and didn’t pay myself at all. We had to live on my husbands income but couldn’t hold out longer than 4 years. Here’s why it failed: * The margins on the products were very low. The more expensive the item, the less profit. * Electricity was high (California) * Taxes were high (California) * Rent was high (California) * Pay for internet * Pay for water. Now you’re thinking, that shouldn’t be much. Oh but it is. See, the Landlord takes the total cost of the bill and makes the renters pay by the square foot of their space. And guess who had the largest space? ME! * Pay to have credit card machines. Each transaction I had to pay a fee to Merchant Services. * Stealing was rampant. My insurance deductible was so high that every window broken or product that was stolen wasn’t covered. * Minimum wage went up so I had to let people go. * My landlord (SaveMart Supermarkets) wanted to repave their parking lot (it was located at the far end of the strip mall). So we, the renters, had to pay for it (per our square foot). My portion of the bill was $10,000. The parking lot was no where near my store! * 2009 economy down turn. All my wonderful blue collar workers lost their jobs. No more customers. Will I ever be a small business owner again? NO WAY! I had to let go 7 employees who depended on that paycheck. I lost my retirement. But I guess I gained a whole new out look on how the economy works.

New employee time

Op all these people are stupid and dont get business and how big chains lime walmart want higher wages because it would put all small businesses out of business. Most owners don't cut themselves a salary until 3 to 5 years after starting a business. fire them and hire some hard working people.

If you can’t afford to pay your employees a living wage then you can’t afford to own a business.

That is a living wage. Can’t pay it, don’t run a business. 💁🏼‍♂️