Felt like I needed to respond to this. As a truly small business owner with 3 full time (45+ hours) employees, the expenses are so great in the growth stages that I have absolutely no choice but to cap wages at a certain amount.

The formula under the currently projected gross/net puts my salary at just $1/hr above my highest paid employee, and $3/hr from my lowest paid employee. I make sure that leftover money (before payroll) is spread around as fair as possible to the employees even though my responsibilities far exceed theirs, naturally as the money is not there yet to pay them more money to handle the duties or to hire someone part time for it. The expenses are tremendous. I am extremely eager for the day when the business has developed a cash flow that will enable me to put all of the working parts of the system in place and actually let me breathe for a weekend, or even cut my hours to 20-40 a week, while still being just as passionate about the business and its success as I am now, and ensuring everyone receives the pay that the position is worth, not more or less with the exception of bonuses for a good year.

My point...we gross about $700-$1000 a day on average. While it seems to everyone in the outside world that I must be loaded, I am in fact struggling and am paid well below a fair price for my work. HOWEVER, even just a small raise to me or my employees would offset the cash flow enough to potentially hurt the business and prevent investing in growth.

If a small business owner is receiving a generous salary (100k+) after all expenses, yet still neglects paying their employees a fair wage, that is grounds to judge his character. However for some businesses, the cash flow of assets such as McDonald's or Burger King just isn't there for us to be able to make such pay increases.