Restaurateurs, Small Businesses Brace For Minimum Wage Increases

The market for automated ordering systems might get a boost in eight states facing big minimum-wage increases on New Year’s Day.

Nationally, the minimum wage stands at $7.25 an hour; it varies from state to state, with minor increases absorbed over the years. But come Jan. 1, employers in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington will be required to pay non-salaried workers a minimum of 32 cents more per hour.

Washington State, which already has the highest state-level minimum wage in the country—$8.67 per hour—will see the hourly wage rise to $9.04. (San Francisco tops that with its minimum wage increasing from the current $9.92 per hour to $10.24.)

In Florida, the minimum wage will rise 36 cents, to $7.67 an hour. The operator of 30 Hurricane Grill & Wings stores there told the Wall Street Journal that the state’s pending 36-cent increase in the minimum wage to $7.67 an hour will add up to more than $1 million in additional operating expenses.