Happy New Year! Welcome to the January 1-5 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute, the first one in 2024, from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento. They’re Back

• The California State Legislature reconvenes this Wednesday (January 3). Expect more of the same progressive agenda to carry over from 2023–although a $68 billion state budget deficit is certain to tamp things down.

• If you haven’t already, NFIB beseeches its California members to read this story, NFIB Releases Top Five Compliance Headaches for 2024, on the NFIB California webpage to prepare for the paperwork blizzard coming your way. An accompanying podcast from one of the state’s highly regarded labor and employment attorneys is also recommended.

• Difficult to remember a time when small businesses had to prepare for so much, and that includes a new federal law taking effect January 1 on new reporting requirements on beneficial ownership. NFIB has produced this web story with the information needed to bring its members and all small business owners up to speed.

It’s Back

• The minimum wage. A new state rate of $16 an hour goes into effect January 1, more if you’re in the fast-food and health-care industries. But the minimum wage issue in California is a bit schizophrenic, points out NFIB California Legislative Director Tim Taylor in this page of notes he scribbled down for a speech he gave.
• The media are covering the rise with their typical spin, as this headline in The Sacramento Bee exemplifies, Minimum wage in California is going up again in 2024. Is it enough to live on?

• But wait! The results are already starting to trickle in. In another Sacramento Bee story within a day of the one above, came this, Pizza Huts in California, including Sacramento, laying off drivers rather than pay $20 minimum wage.

• It’s impossible to collect any salary and benefits from a job you don’t have.

• NFIB California offers this one-page Talking Points Memorandum on the Minimum Wage that explains what it is with one paragraph explanations under these subheadings:

— The Minimum Wage is an Entry-Level Wage Earned Mostly by Teens and Young Adults

— Minimum Wage Earners are Not Trying to Sustain Families

— Raising the Minimum Wage Lifts No One out of Poverty

— Raising the Minimum Wage Benefits Few While Punishing Many More

— Raising the Minimum Wage is Devastating on the Small Business Economy.

Calendar

• January 3, 2024, the California State Legislature reconvenes.
• January 10, deadline for Gov. Gavin Newsom to unveil his 2024-2025 budget plan.
• February 5, counties begin mailing ballots to voters.
• February 20, last day to register for the March Primary Election
• March 5, Primary Election Day
• More deadlines here.

National

• Busier than Santa’s elves all year round, the NFIB Research Center on December 27 released its third credit-focused survey of the NFIB membership.

— “More small business owners report that higher interest rates are impacting business operations,” said Holly Wade, Executive Director of NFIB’s Research Center. “Even with financing concerns, small business owners have expectations for a solid holiday season but aren’t confident in their local or national economy going into the New Year.”

• On December 28, the 25th episode of the “Small Business Rundown” podcast was released. The episode highlights NFIB’s historic 80th Anniversary, featuring NFIB President Brad Close, NFIB Trainer Randy Karschner, and nearly 80-year NFIB member Robert Lycke, Jr. to tell the story of NFIB’s founding and share NFIB’s biggest victories. Listen here!

• The Senate is scheduled to be back in session on Jan. 8, 2024, but may return sooner. The House of Representatives will return on Jan. 9, 2024.

Next Main Street Minute January 8, 2024.