Minimum wage: too little, say workers; too much, say owners

Reporter Cami Joner recently talked to a KFC employee and to the owner of the franchise about the Jan. 1 minimum wage hike. The lowest hourly pay is about to go from $8.07 to $8.55, its second-biggest jump since the state's minimum wage was indexed to the Consumer Price Index. Whether this is good news or bad is a matter of perspective:

"Something is better than nothing, but I wish the raise could be a little bit higher," said Andrea Parker, an employee at the KFC restaurant in Hazel Dell.

A mother of three children, ages 6, 2, and 9 months, Parker is the main breadwinner for her family. Her fiancé, Kenneth Olinger, was laid off from his construction job earlier this year.

On the other hand, KFC owner Scott Dickenson said sales are off by about 10 percent at his eight-restaurant KFC chain, which is based in Vancouver. The price of chicken - KFC's main menu item - has risen by 50 percent.

"Our industry has already been hit pretty hard," Dickenson said, adding that he is reluctant to increase menu prices for fear of alienating cash-strapped customers.

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