NFIB SAYS STATE FUNDING IS EXPENSIVE WAY TO CREATE SUMMER JOBS

BOSTON (February 19, 2015) The state’s largest small business advocacy group agrees with the students gathered in Boston today that although summer jobs provide critical learning experience, hundreds of millions in state funding is the wrong way to go according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

According to Bill Vernon, the Massachusetts State Director of NFIB, “The disappearance of summer jobs for young people in the private sector, and in small businesses in particular, is an economic and societal problem that needs to be addressed. But state and local governments do not have the resources to solve the problem.” 

Vernon said. “Hiring a high school or college student to work when they are not in class is simply no longer economically sound for many small business owners thanks to the increase in minimum wage, the double time wage for work on Sundays, and the lack of a teen wage.” 

Small business owners continue to struggle with balancing their budgets between the cost of wages, benefits, and government regulations making the training a young worker even more difficult. Compound that with the fact that the cost of employment in Massachusetts is among the highest in the nation according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and young people seeking employment are left out in the cold. 

“Our stringent wage rules and other regulations like the new sick leave law need to be more flexible. Otherwise we are losing a rite of passage that teaches our young people important skills, such as how to how to budget spending and saving earnings and showing up at work on time, properly dressed and ready and able to work with others,” Vernon concluded.  For more information visit www.NFIB.com