Some Columbia businesses were against the raise last summer because it came during the recession, putting further strain on their budgets. For restaurants and bars the smoking ban also hurt some business around the same time as well.

Since then, Columbia employers have had very different stories about how much the increase actually affected them.

One car wash owner said he had to raise prices to pay his workers last fall.

A restaurant manager downtown said the raise caused rifts between new workers and veteran staff because he couldn't afford to give raises to workers who'd been there the longest.

Two shopowners downtown have done well during the recession and both have managed to pay higher wages with very little effect on their businesses.

However, the two owners do have different perspectives on the raise.

"When you pay more you have more oppurtunities to get better help or full-time help," Cool Stuff Owner Arnie Fagan says. "So I think it's really going to mostly affect businesses that are just having trouble anyway,as well as students trying to seek employment."

Numerous students have approached Fagan for jobs.

"My thinking is that if my employees are doing better at home," Maude Vintage Owner Sabrina Braden says. "Then they're happier people when they come in and make a happier businessj, a better busines."

Braden is a also a supporter for higher wages for low income workers, especially during that time of recession.

The bottom line is that there is no clear cut response from Columbia business owners, but workers are happy to get higher pay.