Joseph Barker, owner of Ochoco Brewing in Prineville, cringes at the thought of an increase in Oregon’s minimum wage, which at $9.25 an hour is the second-highest in the country.

“I can’t see any good coming out of it,” Barker said Tuesday about a pair of ballot measures filed for next year’s November election.

One, which is supported by Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, would raise the state’s minimum wage to $13.50 over a two-year period. The other would jump Oregon’s hourly minimum wage to $15 over a three-year time span. The $13.50-an-hour proposal, created by a union-led coalition called Raise the Wage, is intended to put pressure on Oregon lawmakers during the 2016 legislative session to raise the minimum wage.

Washington currently has the highest minimum wage in the U.S. at $9.47 an hour and Washington, D.C., has an hourly minimum of $9.50.

“That’s a tough one for us because it’ll drive the cost of goods up,” predicted Barker, who employs approximately 15 people at his brewpub, depending on the time of year. “Every time minimum wage goes up, basic goods go up considerably. It it takes a big hike, like $15 an hour, that’s huge. I’d probably have to charge $18 or $20 for a burger and tell people not to tip.”

Rural business owners throughout Central Oregon are watching the proposed ballot measures and next year’s short legislative session to see whether the state’s minimum wage shoots up by as much as 62 percent.

“I don’t believe it would be good for rural America,” said Aurolyn Stwyer, the owner of Red Sky Trading Post in Warm Springs, who has one full-time employee and one part-time worker. “Realistically, I’d have to look at decreasing hours (for employees).”

Stwyer pointed out that would be especially disheartening on the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation, where the unemployment rate is significantly higher than other parts of the state.

“We’ve got 60 to 70 percent unemployment,” Stwyer said. “People feel lucky to find a place to work. When I first started three years ago, I had two dozen people here looking for work.”

Juan Carlos Ordóñez, the communications director for the Silverton-based Oregon Center for Public Policy, disputes the notion that small businesses would be put out by either measure and counters that more money would circulate through local communities.

“Raising the minimum wage puts more money in the pockets of low-income workers,” Ordóñez said. “We know those workers tend to spend money locally and quickly and that’s pumped back into the economy.”

According to the center for public policy, an estimated 589,000 Oregonians would see their wages increased if the minimum wage was raised to $15 an hour by 2018. Based on the center’s estimates, that would be a financial gain of $3.2 billion in additional wages for the state’s low-wage earners.

“Now a lot of these customers have more money to go out for a meal,” Ordóñez argued. “It makes them better customers for small businesses.”

Oregon House Minority Leader Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte, disagrees with the group’s assessment of a proposed minimum wage hike and its effect on small businesses.

“The impact on rural communities and smaller businesses is disproportionate compared to the rest of the state,” said McLane, whose District 55 includes rural parts of Deschutes, Crook, Jackson, Klamath and Lake counties. Prineville is the largest community in District 55. “The Portland-metro area has the economy to absorb a lot of that. But in our tricounty area (Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties) and in my District 55, we’re small towns. We have folks who are owners of small businesses that’ll have to lay off people and work more hours themselves.

“Small businesses are the backbone of communities in the tricounty area,” he added. “An increase like this could be quite disconcerting.”

Not all small-businesses owners in the rural parts of Central Oregon are worried about the potential wage increases. John Pinckney, who owns La Pine’s Ace Hardware, said he almost always pays his employees more than minimum wage to ensure he has the best people possible.

“We may start them out at minimum wage, but once they show they have some experience or that they’re learning or they look like they’re going to be a good employee, we bump them up,” said Pinckney, who employs 32 people at his store. “We just feel it’s worthwhile to reward good employees.”

That being said, Pinckney’s not necessarily a fan of the state — or anyone, for that matter — telling him or any other business owners how they should run their companies.

“I don’t think it’s the state’s business to have anything to do with business,” he said about minimum wage laws. “That’s none of their business — that’s not what they’re there for.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7829,

beastes@bendbulletin.com