Small businesses anxious about making the new minimum wage work. Employers must pay at least $13 an hour next year, $15 in 2019. Can they handle it?

Crain's New York Business reports:

It's a question dogging employers across the city as the minimum wage hits $13 an hour Dec. 31 for businesses with 11 or more employees, then $15 a year later. Last year, when the city's lowest wage rose to $9 (and $10.50 for fast-food employees), the median family income here went up 5.4%, to $65,440. Although labor costs increased at limited- and full-service restaurants and home health care agencies—which all rely on minimum-wage workers—so did employment. But Michael Saltsman of the Employment Policies Institute points out that the rate of growth in both restaurant categories slowed in 2015 and again last year. Yet job growth at limited-service eateries and in home health care still exceeded overall private-sector growth in 2016, and wage workers surely spend some of their raises at local businesses.

"It's hard for a business to quantify the increased purchasing power of low-wage workers," said James Parrott, director of economic and fiscal policy at the New School's Center for New York City Affairs. "If your sales increase by 10%, how do you know if that increase is due to the minimum wage?"

The struggles of Blue America.