At the same, they're trying to manage large overhead costs, not the least of which are Northampton's expensive commercial rents. Still, it's known by word of mouth to be among the best wages offered to retail and service workers in the city. Simpson believes that the wages help explain why the cafe's employees stay as long as 10 years and show that living wages don't have to ruin a business, as is claimed by many opponents of living wage ordinances. At times, the cafe has put up signs explaining to customers the rise in prices in that context. We decided it was O.K. to let prices subsidize that.
Businesses always say they're going to be scared away, but then they stay.
The weakness in many ordinances and resolutions such as the one passed in Northampton in 1998, is that they end up affecting only city employees - a relatively small percentage of a city's workers. For example, Boston's binding living wage ordinance, which goes into effect this year, will only affect up to 2,000 workers. Northampton's a pretty progressive community. I literally go grocery shopping once a month. You can only budget so much when you really don't have anything to work with.