Businesses prep for increased minimum wage in Las Cruces

Minimum wage workers will be getting a boost starting 2019 making now more than $10 an hour. Local businesses, like Coas Books, though are having to change things up to keep up with new rates.

“The bookstore is a family business. It’s been in business since the '80s,” Michael Beckett said.

Beckett is the owner of Coas Books. He and his wife took over the business when his father retired.

Their biggest challenge so far is keeping up with the rising minimum wage.

“We’ve had to take steps to figure out how to cover it. It’s going to be a $60,000 hit to us. You know we have a thousand hours of employees a week you have to pay taxes on top of that,” Beckett said.

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Claudia Tristán@ClaudiaKFOX_CBSThe minimum wage in #LasCruces is set to increase to $10.10 starting Jan. 1st. One local business says it’s going to cost them an additional $60,000 a year. 26:16 PM - Dec 31, 2018

Starting January first, minimum wage within Las Cruces will be $10.10. That's after City Council voted to continue with a minimum wage increase set back in 2014. Increases started in 2015, and continued in 2017 with a $9.20 rate.

Beckett said the only thing they can do to keep up is keep staff numbers low with just 35 employees.

“We were really careful on how many people we hire mostly. It’s really about the hours of people so we have to say we’ll we can’t really raise our prices because people have an expectation of what they’re going to pay for a book,” Beckett said.

Joshua Bechtell is about to join the workforce.

“Actually I think it’s kind of fair based on not having to struggle anymore for just the basic minimum wage and being able to get $10 and hour and work a full 40 hours a week and be able to pay your bills and be able to make minimum rent,” Bechtell said.

But employers like Beckett said the change is going to force them keep staff numbers low and experienced.

“This used to be a place where you could start to learn to work and at the rate it’s at now we can’t do that. We just have to get people who already know how to handle retail. It’s sad but that’s the reality,” Beckett said.

Tipped employees will also be getting a raise starting 2019. They’ll be making $4.04 per hour plus tips.