[SoftTalker]

And people who have no experience feel incredibly entitled to judge others.

A job has a value. A business cannot pay more than that, or they will not be able to remain a going concern. Businesses cannot simply raise their prices in a competitive market, nor can they operate at a loss to pay their employees more.

You might be surprised how little bottom-line profit most small businesses generate. It's maybe a few percent above what a savings account would pay. If they can't earn enough to compensate for their risk and time, owners will just close up.

[UltraSane]

I've worked at a lot of family-owned medium-sized businesses and guess what, the owner and their family was always rich as hell. At one company the owner had a HUGE office but was basically retired and never spent any time there at all. His wife had a big office and was never ever there. One of his sons had a pretty big office but was also never ever there. Meanwhile they crammed all the IT staff in a ridiculously cramped cubical farm. Part of the underground garage in two different buildings was used as storage for the Owner's private car collection. He also parked his limo and giant boat in there.

[jmspring]

This was a "small business" - plant/specialty item store, retail - in a county of 20k people (and a seasonal tourist destination) - it was not a "rich as hell medium business". So maybe curb your allusions/assupmtions to what small business may be.