The thought of raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 leaves some local small business employers filled with apprehension.

Marco’s Pizza franchisee Woody Johnson operates three pizza chain stores across metro Augusta. Johnson and his business partner will add three more locations in the area by next summer, doubling the payroll to about 180 people, many of whom are part-timers paid the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

“Eventually, it’s going to get where we can’t grow more stores and we’ll have a difficulty just growing the stores we’ve got with employees,” he said. There have been three minimum wage increases in the past seven years. “So at some point for us, it’s going to kill growth, kill jobs,” he said.

And the nearly $3 per hour increase in wages would affect more than those making the minimum. At Green Thumb West Nursery and Garden Center in Martinez, the starting wage for David Bokesch’s team of 11 workers is $8.50 per hour.

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