Arizona’s minimum wage rose to $10.50 an hour this year. According to small business owner Carlos Ruiz, a tax decrease would be a better choice than a minimum wage increase.
“As a small-business owner, I know firsthand the negative impact a mandated wage hike like that has on businesses, which are left with slimmer profit margins and fewer resources with which to hire more employees,” Ruiz said in his opinion article in the Arizona Capitol Times.
Ruiz said that a $10.50 an hour minimum wage leaves employees vulnerable to staff cutbacks, reduced hours, and other cost-cutting measures. He cited a report released by the University of Washington that saw an estimated 9 percent reduction in hours, or a loss of $125 a month per job.
Arizona’s minimum wage will continue to rise until it reaches $12 an hour in 2020. In January 2018 it was raised by 50 cents. This was approved by voters in the November 2016 elections.
“As a longtime job creator, it has been my experience that the best way to incentivize business owners to invest in their employees—and their business—is by lowering their tax burden, which is exactly what congressional Republicans accomplished with their recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz used Walmart’s raised minimum wage to $11 an hour after the passage of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as well as the Western Alliance Bancorporation’s raised base pay for many employees by 7.5 percent in addition to increased bonuses and expanded maternity leave benefits as proof that more lenient tax regulations help grow the economy.
“In my own business, I will be using my tax savings to hire more people, buy new equipment, and run more shifts. I care about my employees and I want the best for them. I know that many small businesses in our state simply can’t afford to keep up with government-imposed wage hikes, and the first ones to suffer will be our employees themselves,” he said.
