Annapolis
(February 11, 2014) –
Maryland’s reputation among small business owners is already comparatively weak
and a 40-percent boost in the cost of entry-level labor will be another black
eye for the state, the National
Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) will tell lawmakers today.
“Our
taxes are already very high. Our
regulatory system is already very costly.
Raising the minimum wage by 40 percent and then putting it on auto pilot
will make Maryland immediately more expensive to run a small business,” said NFIB State Director Jessica Cooper. “We can’t keep piling on the costs and expect
small businesses to keep producing jobs and opportunities for Marylanders.”
Lawmakers
today are hearing testimony on a bill that would increase the state minimum
wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10. It
would also mandate automatic annual increases based on the Consumer Price
Index. If the bill passes Maryland’s minimum
wage would be 22 percent higher than the rate in Delaware and nearly 40 percent
higher than it is in Virginia, Pennsylvania and many other states.
“For
most small businesses this is not about the next kid they hire. It’s about their entire payroll,” said
Cooper. “Small business owners will have
to pay their current workers more than the minimum wage, so this bill will
inflate labor costs all the way up the pay scale.”
Cooper
pointed out as well that according to federal statistics very
few full-time working adults are earning $7.25 per hour.
“The
typical minimum wage worker is a kid with very little experience and this bill
would force employers to pay them as much as older employees with higher
skills,” said Cooper. “The unemployment
rate for teenagers is already three times higher than the average and this bill
would make young workers even less attractive.
We’ll be pricing young people out of the job market.”
Small
businesses that can’t absorb the increase will be forced to cut jobs, said
Cooper.
“They
don’t want to eliminate jobs but this bill would give them no choice,” she
said. “They can’t pass the cost on to
consumers and they can’t reduce their other expenses. Payroll is one of the few places where they
can make cuts. The result will be fewer
jobs and fewer opportunities, especially for young people.”
For
more information about NFIB, please log on to www.nfib.com.
