For Immediate Release

Andrew Markowski, 860-707-3620

Two days after Gallup Ranks Connecticut Dead Last in
Job Creation, Legislature Plans Introduces Major New Burden on Small Businesses

Jobs will disappear
under new Paid Leave bill as employers struggle with higher labor costs and
lost productivity, says National Federation of Independent Business

Hartford (February 12, 2015) —  Just two days
after another
national survey placed Connecticut at the bottom for job creation,
lawmakers tomorrow will introduce a bill that would force all but the smallest
employers to pay workers who aren’t working, an expensive mandatory benefit
that will dampen the demand for labor and undermine business profitability.

“Their timing couldn’t be worse,” said NFIB State Director
Andrew Markowski.  “The Gallup Survey is another in a long string of
rankings that indicate that Connecticut has one of the worst business
environments in the country.  Either the lawmakers in Hartford don’t
believe the surveys or they have another agenda.”

Yesterday Gallup released a survey of workers in every state
asking about the hiring climate.  Workers in Connecticut, according to the
survey, a more negative assessment than any of their counterparts across the
country.  Despite that dispiriting result, state legislators are pushing
ahead with their
plans to mandate paid leave for every business with more than 9 employees.

“Paid leave is a generous benefit that not every business
can afford,” said Markowski.  “Small businesses don’t have big pools of
workers who can be reassigned to fill in absent workers.  So, either their
productivity suffers, in which case they’re losing customers and damaging their
reputation, or they must hire temporary workers or pay overtime to other
employees, in both of which cases their labor costs increase regardless of
whether their revenue increases.  It’s a real hardship in many small
businesses.”

Markowski pointed out that Connecticut’s economy has lagged
the country for years.  He pointed to other news yesterday reporting that
state Revenue officials are increasingly concerned that some of its wealthiest
residents might move out of state and leave behind a big revenue gap.

“They are surrounded by evidence that the high cost of
living and doing business in Connecticut is a risk to the economy and the
state’s fiscal condition,” he said.  “Which makes it even harder to
understand what makes them believe that mandatory paid time off will improve
things.”

For more information about NFIB, please visit www.nfib.com.

 

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