Ian's Pizza Raises its Minimum Wage to $10

MADISON  (CHANNEL 3000)-  Ian’s Pizza will be raising its minimum wage for employees to $10 an hour in starting in Madison.

Starting on Jan.  11, the company will raise the minimum wage for its employees to $10 an hour.  Currently the minimum wage paid to an employee at Ian's Pizza is $8 an hour.  The minimum wage in Wisconsin is $7.25.

CBS 58 spoke with a manager at a Milwaukee location that said the company was rolling out the new wage in Madison and Milwaukee would follow suit in a year or two. The manager said that due to the recent remodel at the North Avenue location they were waiting to raise the wages in Milwaukee.

"The owners definitely were like, "You know what? This is something we have to do,'" Nick Martin, managing partner of Ian’s Pizza, said. "But the customers, too, the ones we talked to, are like, 'Yeah, you should do this. This is the right thing to do.'”

Support from customers is important, as Ian’s will be asking them to pay 25 cents more for a single slice of pizza. Ian’s will not increase the price of a full pizza.

"I don’t think customers will even notice that, so I would pay an extra quarter," Michelle Frantz, a customer, said.

Ian's Pizza plans to be upfront with customers about the price increase by placing a sign near the cash register letting people know the proceeds from the increase are going to pay for wage increase.

Ian's Pizza has 90 employees at its two locations in Madison. The company already offers workers a 401k plan, profit-sharing program and health benefits.