NFIB to Grimes: How Many Jobs Can Kentucky Afford to Lose?

Date: August 19, 2014

The National
Federation of Independent Business today asked U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes whether she believes
the Congressional Budget Office’s projection that a 40 percent increase in the
federal minimum wage would cause half a million jobs to disappear and whether she
thinks that would be good for Kentucky. 

“Most employers in Kentucky are small businesses
and they rely more heavily on hourly labor than big corporations,” said NFIB Vice President Lisa Goeas. “If the Secretary is going to make the
minimum wage a campaign issue then voters deserve to know how many jobs she
thinks Kentucky can afford to lose.”

In her new TV campaign ad Grimes backs President
Obama’s plan to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour,
an increase of nearly 40 percent. Earlier
this year the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the plan would cause
upwards of 500,000 jobs to disappear.

“The money has to come from somewhere,” said
Goeas. “Based on what does the Secretary
believe small businesses can absorb the increase without having to reduce
payroll costs in some other way?”

Whether to raise the minimum wage is a fair
campaign debate, said Goeas, but not without more thoughtful explanations from
the candidates.

“If you’re going to promise everyone a pay raise
then you have an obligation as a candidate to explain how that can work,” she
said.  “Otherwise it’s just another
gratuitous political promise and we’ve all had enough of those.”

PHOTO of downtown Bowling Green OPMaster/Wikipedia

Related Content: Small Business News | Kentucky

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