Minimum wage increase will see one business owner needing extra €100,000

“It is going to be a tough year for business,” Fine Gael Cllr Martin Harley warned, as he explained that one business owner who operates three shops in the county will have an increased wage bill of €100,000, after the minimum wage increased by €1.40 per hour at the beginning of the month.

Speaking at the January meeting of the Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District Cllr Harley, who is also the current Cathaoirleach of Donegal County Council, asked that as much publicity as possible be accorded to local council and enterprise initiatives under the lean green digital initiatives and business information sessions that were due to take place over the next couple of months.  

“Could that possible be advertised in local papers as it is important now as I feel it is going to be a very difficult year for businesses because the overheads have gone up big time in businesses now and if there is any way that they can be help through the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) to make savings whether through energy savings or otherwise," he asked.

ABOVE: Cllr Martin Harley has welcomed the increase in the minimum wage but says that businesses must be given the proper supports and access to that information to keep them afloat. 

“I think that it would be important and speaking to one business owner there recently who has three shops in the county that the raising of the minimum wage by €1.40 will see his wage bill increase by €100,000. And in fairness it is good to see the minimum wage increase as well, but we need to have the supports in place as well for businesses, so that they can survive this as well. 

“It is important that the minimum wage went up, because people’s mortgages have gone up a good bit in the last two years and I think that it is important that people are supported, but it is then about getting the proper support in places for businesses, so that they can survive as well.       

He said that there were a lot of things going on at the Local Enterprise Office that would be of help to people “but it is getting the message out there to businesses that I see, would be an important one”.

He said that “when you tell people that there are such things available at the Local Enterprise Office they say that they didn’t realise that and when you look at all the grant aids, training online vouchers and mentoring, micro financing and all the other things that are there sustainable energy, there are a fortune of things going on that that people don’t realise.”

This week, he added, that as the Donegal representative of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, he was acutely aware of the challenges that publicans and other businesses were facing on a daily basis.