The difference between an Idaho and a Washington minimum-wage job will hit $2.48 an hour Sunday, and some people are waiting to see what the impact may be.
Washington's new rate of $7.63 an hour is the highest in the nation, but it's just 28 cents higher than present.
"But little changes sometimes have big impacts," said Joy Finch, assistant to Bruce Finch, president of Happy Day Corp.
And it's not really a small change when you consider it jumped from $7.15 just a year ago, she said.
Happy Day Corp. employs 360 to 400 people in fast-food and full-service restaurants in Clarkston, Lewiston, Pullman and Moscow. They include the Taco Time and Arby's franchises, Tomato Brothers, Zany's, A&W, Samurai Sam's, Southway Pizzeria and Main Street Grill.
Washington voters in 1998 approved putting the state's minimum wage on an annual escalator tied to the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. That went up 2.6 percent in the 2003-2004 measuring period and 3.8 percent in the most recent one that ended Aug. 31.
The minimum wage applies to workers in both agricultural and non-agricultural jobs. Younger workers, 14 and 15 years old, can be paid at 85 percent of the adult wage, according to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.
"Really? Wow!" said Kathy Nolte, a 17-year-old Lewiston High School junior who works for Idaho's minimum wage of $5.15 an hour upon hearing of the new Washington rate. "I knew it was higher, but I didn't know it was almost $3 higher."
One of her friends is just waiting to get her driver's license so she can look for a new job in Washington, but Nolte said she is happy where she is -- making pizzas for Domino's -- for $5.15 an hour. "It's not a lot of money but the people I work with and my boss totally make up for that. They're awesome. ... It's your family at work you go to work for, and not the money." The paycheck does pay for her car and insurance, though, and when she leaves home for college the money will have a higher priority than friends, Nolte said. Michelle Wilcoxon, 18, of Lewiston agrees that enjoying work makes up for lower pay. She left a $7.16 an hour job at a Lewiston fast-food restaurant to make $5.15 at a Hot Shot espresso stand.
It's a better place to work, she said, and as long as she lives with her dad and doesn't have to pay rent, the money gets her by. Those are attitudes Finch is familiar with.
"It's part of the working environments we have," she said. "They become connected. They don't want to lose their connection with their community. I think it's more than a monetary thing."
How better to explain Audrey Glasser, a 33-year employee who started at Taco Time when it was several blocks down 21st Street, and then moved to Clarkston and finally retired Friday from the Lewiston Arby's?
Usually the company sees more movement among mature employees because they're more aware of the wage differences, and among those at the full-service restaurants because they're generally more experienced, Finch said.
Clifford W. Wasem, owner of Wasem's Drugs at Clarkston, has a different perspective on minimum-wage laws.
"It's the concept of it more than what it amounts to." His business employs more than 60 people and at least 80 percent are paid more than minimum wage, Wasem said. "So it doesn't hurt us as far as our business is concerned." It's the concept of the thing, he said, that stems back to the Federal Reserve, "in cahoots with administrations" printing hundreds of millions of dollars of paper money not backed by silver or another precious metal. "Government creates inflation and then tells you you have to pay more to hire people," he said. "I think government has no business telling anybody what they should pay or charge. Fixing prices is a thing socialists promoted for decades." The marketplace should decide wages, the price of products and whether to smoke or not smoke, Wasem said. With artificial rules set by different governments, some businesses get caught in the middle, and he expects that will happen to a few along the Washington-Idaho border.
The difference between an Idaho and a Washington minimum-wage job will hit $2.48 an hour Sunday, and some people are waiting to see what the impact may be.
Washington's new rate of $7.63 an hour is the highest in the nation, but it's just 28 cents higher than present.
"But little changes sometimes have big impacts," said Joy Finch, assistant to Bruce Finch, president of Happy Day Corp.
And it's not really a small change when you consider it jumped from $7.15 just a year ago, she said.
Happy Day Corp. employs 360 to 400 people in fast-food and full-service restaurants in Clarkston, Lewiston, Pullman and Moscow. They include the Taco Time and Arby's franchises, Tomato Brothers, Zany's, A&W, Samurai Sam's, Southway Pizzeria and Main Street Grill.
Washington voters in 1998 approved putting the state's minimum wage on an annual escalator tied to the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. That went up 2.6 percent in the 2003-2004 measuring period and 3.8 percent in the most recent one that ended Aug. 31.
The minimum wage applies to workers in both agricultural and non-agricultural jobs. Younger workers, 14 and 15 years old, can be paid at 85 percent of the adult wage, according to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.
"Really? Wow!" said Kathy Nolte, a 17-year-old Lewiston High School junior who works for Idaho's minimum wage of $5.15 an hour upon hearing of the new Washington rate. "I knew it was higher, but I didn't know it was almost $3 higher."
One of her friends is just waiting to get her driver's license so she can look for a new job in Washington, but Nolte said she is happy where she is -- making pizzas for Domino's -- for $5.15 an hour.
"It's not a lot of money but the people I work with and my boss totally make up for that. They're awesome. ... It's your family at work you go to work for, and not the money."
The paycheck does pay for her car and insurance, though, and when she leaves home for college the money will have a higher priority than friends, Nolte said.
Michelle Wilcoxon, 18, of Lewiston agrees that enjoying work makes up for lower pay. She left a $7.16 an hour job at a Lewiston fast-food restaurant to make $5.15 at a Hot Shot espresso stand.
It's a better place to work, she said, and as long as she lives with her dad and doesn't have to pay rent, the money gets her by.
Those are attitudes Finch is familiar with.
"It's part of the working environments we have," she said. "They become connected. They don't want to lose their connection with their community. I think it's more than a monetary thing."
How better to explain Audrey Glasser, a 33-year employee who started at Taco Time when it was several blocks down 21st Street, and then moved to Clarkston and finally retired Friday from the Lewiston Arby's?
Usually the company sees more movement among mature employees because they're more aware of the wage differences, and among those at the full-service restaurants because they're generally more experienced, Finch said.
Clifford W. Wasem, owner of Wasem's Drugs at Clarkston, has a different perspective on minimum-wage laws.
"It's the concept of it more than what it amounts to."
His business employs more than 60 people and at least 80 percent are paid more than minimum wage, Wasem said. "So it doesn't hurt us as far as our business is concerned."
It's the concept of the thing, he said, that stems back to the Federal Reserve, "in cahoots with administrations" printing hundreds of millions of dollars of paper money not backed by silver or another precious metal.
"Government creates inflation and then tells you you have to pay more to hire people," he said.
"I think government has no business telling anybody what they should pay or charge. Fixing prices is a thing socialists promoted for decades."
The marketplace should decide wages, the price of products and whether to smoke or not smoke, Wasem said. With artificial rules set by different governments, some businesses get caught in the middle, and he expects that will happen to a few along the Washington-Idaho border.
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