Market Update: Small-business owners in Pennsylvania struggle in wake of tariffs – Full Analysis

As business costs continue to mount in the wake of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Andrea Grove, the owner of Elementary Coffee Co. in Harrisburg, has done everything she can think of to keep running a business in which her employees are paid well, her customers can afford her coffee, and she can provide a home away from home for anyone looking for community. 

As small-business owners across the country have attested, making ends meet financially is not easy these days as Trump’s sweeping tariffs on products from around the globe have resulted in increased prices on everything from coffee beans and groceries to aluminum and packaging like cups and lids.

For Grove, the tariffs have left her with rising prices for coffee beans and for packaging from China, such as cups. To address those added costs, Grove no longer pays herself, instituted a hiring freeze, increased some prices for consumers, and changed her serveware from environmentally friendly packaging to plastic goods that don’t align with her own personal ethics. 

After 11 years in business, she’s deeply worried about the future of her company.

“I’m very nervous,” Grove said. “I think my boyfriend can attest that I have been more stressed than ever before about the continuation of my own company if I’m going to be able to offer what I set out to offer and if I’m going to be able to make ends meet. It’s been like scraping the bottom of the barrel financially for me to just keep things running.” 

In December, Grove began decreasing her own wages, and in January, cut them altogether in an effort to make ends meet for her business.

“Then I gave myself $400 last week because I was like, I need money,” she said. “Then I was looking into substitute teaching because I was like, I think I might need a second job. But when am I going to have time to do that? So I was looking into that sort of thing as well because I need to pay rent. I need to take care of my cat.”

Rising costs for businesses and households

Across the country, Trump’s tariffs are financially hurting small businesses and families, according to two reports released in the past week. Immediately after his inauguration, Trump began threatening to impose tariffs on foreign goods and services. In early April, he imposed a 10% tariff on goods imported from nearly every country as well as additional tariffs on goods from certain countries, declaring that “foreign trade and economic practices have created a national emergency” and that tariffs were needed to respond. Consumer prices have continued to rise during Trump’s second term.

A Feb. 11 report from Sen. Ed Markey, a Democratic lawmaker from Massachusetts and a ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, found that small businesses in the United States paid more than $63.1 billion between March 2025 and November 2025 due to tariffs, including $1.6 billion from Pennsylvania’s small businesses. The same report found businesses with fewer than 500 workers lost 132,000 jobs since April 2025. 

“Small businesses don’t have Mar-a-Lago memberships, golden gifts, or ballroom invitations granting them special exemptions from Trump’s reckless economic policies, including his tariff taxes,” Markey said in a press release. “Since Inauguration Day, Trump has made life more expensive for Americans—driving up costs on everything from health care, electricity, and groceries to child care and housing—all while giving tax cuts to CEO billionaires and currying favors with big business.”

Families are also being financially affected by tariffs, according to a study by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation released on Feb. 6. According to that study, Trump’s tariffs raised costs for American households by an average of $1,000 in 2025. If the tariffs remain in place this year, they are expected to cost households another $1,300 in 2026. 

“The Trump tariffs are the largest US tax increase as a percent of GDP (0.54 percent for 2026) since 1993,” the study’s authors noted. “Historical evidence and recent studies show that tariffs are taxes that raise prices and reduce available quantities of goods and services for US businesses and consumers, resulting in lower income, reduced employment, and lower economic output.”

New research from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that U.S. consumers bear 95% of Trump’s tariffs.

“America’s average tariff rate has increased by nearly sevenfold in the past year — while inflation has actually cooled, real wages have risen, GDP growth has accelerated, and trillions in investments continue pouring in to make and hire in America,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in an emailed statement. “Panicans need to come to terms with the fact that President Trump continues to be proven right on tariffs.” The term panican is a term coined by Trump for people who disagree with his tariffs.

Congressional votes on tariffs

After House Republicans have repeatedly blocked efforts by congressional Democrats to overturn Trump’s tariff policies, six House Republicans on Feb. 11 joined Democrats and voted to block Trump’s tariffs on Canada. The resolution now goes to the Senate, where some Republicans have previously joined with Democrats to pass similar resolutions.

If it does pass the Senate, Trump is expected to veto it. Democrats would need a two-thirds vote in both chambers to override Trump’s veto, making a tariff repeal unlikely.

Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Kevin Kiley of California, Jeff Hurd of Colorado, and Dan Newhouse of Washington backed the resolution. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to vote against it.

On Feb. 11, Fitzpatrick and 213 other House Republicans backed a resolution that aimed to ban legislative challenges to Trump’s tariffs through July 31. That attempt failed, with three Republicans — Kiley, Bacon and Massie — joining Democrats to defeat the resolution by a vote of 217-214.

Lawmakers’ dwindling support for tariffs comes as about 60% of Americans say they disapprove of Trump’s tariffs, according to the Pew Research Center.

It also comes as Pennsylvanians, and Americans at large, are struggling with increased costs. Health care premiums are increasing after Republicans failed to extend health insurance subsidies, hundreds of thousands of people across the commonwealth are expected to lose health coverage after congressional Republicans cut Medicaid, families are spending more money due to inflation, and unemployment is up.

Rachele Fortier, the executive director of Affordable Pennsylvania, criticized Pennsylvania Reps. Ryan Mackenzie, Rob Bresnahan and Scott Perry for voting against Wednesday’s resolution to overturn the tariffs on Canada.

“As their constituents struggle to afford health care, groceries, housing, utilities, and other basic necessities, Congressmen Mackenzie, Bresnahan, and Perry voted to continue jacking up costs on Pennsylvania industry, consumers, and families,” Fortier said in a press release. “How are you serving your constituents by voting for higher costs while they struggle to get by? These congressmen need to stop bending the knee to Trump and try fighting for their constituents for a change.”

‘We need support from the federal government’

As Congress considers fighting Trump’s tariffs and the president digs his heels in on economic policy that’s making life more expensive for Americans, Grove hopes elected officials will hear small-business owners’ pleas for help.

“I would think most people don’t want a world where small businesses can’t thrive and exist, and they are only forced to go to chains,” Grove said. “So if small businesses are as important as everyone seems to believe that they are, it would be really good to recognize just how much work they’re doing for communities, how much they’re already sacrificing, and how much they need everyone’s support. 

“But it’s not just like, Hey we need customers,” Grove continued. “We need support from legislature. We need support from the federal government.”

She asked lawmakers to put aside political affiliation and do what’s right for Americans who are struggling.

“Understand that the people that are paying the cost for their decisions are very real people,” she said. “And if, for some reason, they don’t think that they exist — we do. We are here, and I think people will be very, very upset if we disappear.”