CA State Minimum Wage Increase

Date 1/4/2016

Last week we sent off a letter to all our brokers letting them know that because of the State of California Minimum Wage increase and the yearly price increase of supplies, we had no choice but to increase our prices slightly. We are looking at around 8-10% for screen printing and 10%-15% for embroidery. At this moment, DTG pricing will stay the same.

Here is what we sent off:

“Dear J6 Broker, Thank you once again for a great year! As a Trade Printer, we rely on you for our sales and are grateful for every order we receive. This year we were able to add two new six-head Tajima embroidery machines and a DTG printer. 2016 is going to be the year of screen printing. We’ll be acquiring a larger oven and making important updates to the machines. We are continually investing to increase productivity and be as cost effective as possible. There is even a new website we developed called J6Broker.com  which is a great informational resource for all our brokers. Please take a moment to check it out!

We do everything we can to keep production capacity high and costs low, but there are some things out of our control. We received notice today that the state of California is making another increase in minimum wage. Included in this category is most of our support staff: the embroidery cleaners, the screen print catcher, the screen printing screen cleaners, new trainees in all departments, among others. This also affects the morale of all other employees that get paid above minimum wage. To balance things out, an overall wage increase will need to be implemented.

Labor is the largest expense paid when it comes to providing services. Unfortunately, to stay in business, these wage increases mean we will have to increase our prices.

We are currently working a new price structure and will have it available ASAP. You will see the price increases on all 2016 invoices. Please come by and ask for a price list or request it be emailed to you. If you have already been quoted for a job due in a few weeks we will be happy to honor that price, but we cannot honor contract prices continuing in 2016.

Please contact us and let us know your concern so we can work together and work through  this price increase. Our brokers are family to us and for us to succeed we need you to succeed.

thank you

Rick h.”