Locals ready for statewide minimum wage bump.

For millions of Californians, the start of 2016 meant coming $1 closer to making ends meet, as a statewide minimum wage boost went into effect. But the verdict is still out on how the raise will impact local businesses.

State law, as of Jan. 1, requires employers pay a minimum $10 an hour to employees – a rate many Monterey Peninsula small business owners say they already pay. This bump bolsters California as the state with the highest minimum wage in the nation, which is nearly 40 percent higher than the $7.25 federal minimum wage.

“This is still very little to get by on the Central Coast, but this is a reasonable increase,” says Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, who authored the bill.

Alejo, though, says the raise is still not enough. And California advocates for a $15 minimum wage are already marshaling their forces in support of a November 2016 ballot initiative.

But as low-wage employees rejoice over the recent boost, some mom-and-pop shops fear their fixed budgets cannot handle another spike in payroll.

One downtown Pacific Grove businessman, who declined to be named, said paying $15 an hour would put him out of business. He added the current $10 rate has forced him to up prices at his food business. Other business owners in the same area say they won’t feel a jolt in their quota because they already pay $10 or more to their employees.

“My people make good money, but I could see where it could be very hard for a coffee shop to make it,” Kate Matzu, Grove Market manager, says. “But then on the employee side, it would be impossible to live here without more than $10 [an hour].”

For Jeffrey Kong, owner of Plumes Coffee Shop in downtown Monterey, the change will mean a little less money to put back into his business.

“Nothing will change for the customers, but there will be less money in my pocket,” he says.