I live in the Northwest of the United States. We are now the small business and startup mecca of the country. Why? San Francisco and Silicon Valley are too expensive. So, folks are moving in droves to Portland and Seattle; one-third of the license plates in my hood are out of state.

But there are challenges. The cost of housing and living in the Northwest is now approaching the San Francisco standards of four years ago. The surplus of new folks, mainly millennials in their late 20s and early 30s, moving into town require livable-wage work. So with the influx of these folks into Seattle and Portland, the cities are raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

And this is a problem for many small-business owners.

The core problem

We are now confronted with the law of unintended consequences. The idea of a livable wage appeals to politicians, who want votes, and to millennials, who need work. One of the best ways to curry votes is to appeal to the mass of voters who are low-wage workers. This is done mainly by politicians who have never run a small business. And here lies the unintended consequence.

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