On Monday, the first of the month, St. Paul increased the minimum wage for small businesses in the city.

For small businesses with between six and 100 employees, the new minimum wage is $14.00 an hour.

For micro businesses with five employees or less, the minimum wage is now $12.25 an hour.

Angie Reeves, owner of Pet Evolution on Grand Avenue, said she’s looking at other ways to cut costs after the wage increase.

“It’s not that we don’t want to pay our employees well,” Reeves said. “We just have to find ways to be profitable in a business. After going through everything with COVID and how that impacted small businesses to now be also facing that increase in wages seems like a lot.”

In 2018, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter signed into law a minimum wage ordinance after a unanimous vote from the city council.