SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 20, 2016—The representative association for California’s small-business owners today issued its wish list of two things it would like to hear Gov. Jerry Brown say tomorrow, January 21, when he delivers his State-of-the-State Address to the Legislature.
“More than anything else, California small businesses would like to hear Governor Brown reaffirm his opposition to raising the state’s minimum-wage rate to $15 an hour, something he warned of having dire consequences on Page 11 in his Department of Finance’s Budget Summary,” said Tom Scott, California executive director for the National Federation of Independent. “The state minimum wage just went up another dollar this month, and a vast body of economic research shows that raising the rates yet again will only eliminate opportunities for young adults and unskilled laborers who desperately need that first job. A high minimum wage may put money into some hands, but many others will lose everything.”
“Small business would also like to hear the governor’s idea for getting California out of the regulatory morass that places us dead last among 50 states in the latest study by the Pacific Research Institute. Small business, not big business, is the consistent generator of new jobs, and it cannot survive this way.”
According to the latest California information from the U.S. Small Business Administration, “Almost all firms with employees are small. They make up 99.2 percent of all employers in the state.” The National Federation of Independent Business is America’s largest and leading small-business association with 350,000 dues-paying members nationwide, including more than 22,000 in California. Click here for an online media kit with single pages of narrative and bullet information on such topics as what a small business is, its five distinctions from a big business, and why NFIB doesn’t take positions on certain issues.
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For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the Voice of Small Business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America’s economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. NFIB’s educational mission is to remind policymakers that small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses; they have very different challenges and priorities.
National Federation of Independent Business/California
921 11th St. Suite 400
Sacramento, CA 95814-4405
916-4489904
Twitter: @NFIB_CA
