Meet the Czech immigrant whose suspender business faces extinction with minimum wage hike
BY: Bill McMorris — April 9, 2015 12:00 pm
A tiny San Francisco suburb’s attempt to implement one of the nation’s highest minimum wages threatens to shatter an immigrant’s American dream.
John Nemec came to America from the Czechoslovakia in 1966 with $20 in his pocket and zero relatives and friends. He landed a minimum wage job in New York City that netted him $1.25 an hour.
“I thought I was a rich man—anyone coming from my country felt rich. We made 2,000 crowns in a month. That was about $57,” he says. Read More: Suspending the American Dream