Minimum Wages in Grocery Stores: Selected Experiences in New York State

Excerpt from the report Introduction: Labor costs make up the most important single cost item in the retailing of farm food products. Various factors tend to increase labor cost, one of these factors being increased wage rates. In some States--for example, New York--minimum wage rates for employees engaged in retailing are established legally by wage order boards. In 1957, changes in the minimum wage order applicable to these employees required an increase in the legal wage rate. This study was designed to observe the impact of these wage changes on labor costs, margins, and methods of operation in a limited number of stores in New York State. The wage change primarily considered in this study applied only to stores in communities of less than 10,000 persons. Large stores and the more heavily populated sections of the State are not represented in this sample. Had both large and small communities been included in the study and had large stores been more adequately represented in the sample, the conclusions reached might have been different from those reported in this study.