“Minimum wage does nothing but create unemployment. It pushes workers out of the workforce and into welfare oblivion.”

Stephen Fairchild, president of Sierra Nevada Recreation Corp., echoed the thoughts of some business owners in Calaveras as he voiced his opposition to a pending bill that could raise the minimum wage from $8 to $10 over the next two years.

Assembly Bill 10 was given the go-ahead from the Senate and awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature. Brown had publicly voiced his support for the bill and is expected to sign the bill by Oct. 13.

“The minimum wage has not kept pace with rising costs,” Brown said. “This legislation is overdue and will help families that are struggling in this harsh economy.”

Though Brown asserts minimum wage is lagging behind rising costs, Calaveras County District 1 Supervisor Cliff Edson, who owns Country Cliff’s restaurant in San Andreas, believes costs will surge further ahead of minimum wage if the bill is signed.

“The folks collecting minimum wage will pay more for their goods and services,” Edson said, adding the new wages could cripple employment opportunities. “As a business owner, the increase wouldn’t help me hire people. For me it just doesn’t make sense.”

Edson went on to identify a group of people who would drown in high costs if the bill is signed.

“I’m concerned about seniors on a fixed income,” he said. “They don’t have the opportunity to increase their incomes. They will be paying dearly.”

Fairchild felt his business could suffer as well.

“When something gets too expensive we find a cheaper way to do it,” he said. “We might put more people on a (cave) tour or we might have to automate a tour,” he said.

Some tour-cave operators have replaced live tour guides with headsets that narrate the tour, he said.

“Every time they increase minimum wage, it will decrease employment and there will be a higher probability of employees being replaced by a machine,” Fairchild continued.

Because of the nature of the business run by Fairchild, he said employees have been denied work though they would accept less pay. Fairchild said he has had employees ask to work for under minimum wage and even for free as a “foot-in-the-door” technique just to find employment.

“I get people who offer to work for less than minimum wage and even for free and I can’t do that,” he said. “I frequently get those people, but I can’t pay them. When minimum wage goes up, people just don’t hire.”

Diane Gray, executive director of the Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce, believes that the effects of the bill will be felt the most in small business. Because small businesses are common in Calaveras, Gray believes a minimum wage increase will cause financial hardship.

“I think that businesspeople struggle already,” Gray said. “The cost of overhead is increasing. We find that businesses, particularly in Calaveras County, are struggling to survive. “The majority of businesses in Calaveras are small with one to four employees. They are the ones who are the most impacted by this because it is a significant increase in their overhead cost.”

Though Gray felt that financial loss for business owners would be the end result, she did give some merit to a possible silver lining in the bill.

“Anything that puts more money into the economy is a positive thing too,” she said. “It’s not all bad, but we’re representing business here (at the chamber) so it does make it more difficult for small businesses to survive.”

Though some county workers feel that an across-the-board raise in wages wouldn’t do much to help them out, others believe if wages were increased, leaving the county might not be the fate of those seeking higher-paying jobs.

“As someone who used to work minimum wage in the county, more money would have meant more mobility – not living with my parents,” said Valley Springs resident Kristine Williams. “Had there been more affordable housing, I might have been able to share an apartment and thus had more incentive to stay in Calaveras.”

Though the bill is aimed at helping employees, many workers who live in Calaveras don’t put much stock in the new bill as being a champion of the employee.

“A minimum wage increase does mean more money coming in on my paychecks,” said Milissa Maury of San Andreas, who works at Jackson Rancheria. “But as minimum wage is increased so is the cost of living – gas, groceries and the bills we pay. These (costs) will all increase, leaving us with a less powerful dollar that we’re being paid.”