No one gets an increase in pay from a job he or she doesn’t have or may not be able to keep
CARSON CITY, Nev., June 29, 2020—Nevada raises its minimum-wage rate to $8 an hour on Wednesday, July 1, or to $9 an hour if health benefits aren’t offered, which the state’s leading small-business association called illusory for the thousands of Silver State workers out of a job, hoping to hold onto their job, or desperately seeking employment.
“This cost increase could not have come at a worse time,” said Randi Thompson, Nevada state director for NFIB. “Thousands of small businesses are struggling to recover from an administratively forced shutdown that devastated their business. Now, they have to increase costs at a time when revenues are down. For businesses that can only operate at 50 percent capacity, they cannot absorb this increase.”
The increases sprang from Assembly Bill 456, which was approved by the Legislature last year. It bumped up the minimum wage by 75 cents a year through 2024 when it will hit $12 an hour.
There have been calls to delay its implementation, according to Thompson, but nothing has been done and she doesn’t expect a threatened lawsuit to garner much enthusiasm, either.
“The minimum wage has always been more of a feel-good issue for the political class than it has been anything resembling real economic life,” said Thompson. “First of all, minimum-wage workers nationally make up just 1.9 percent of all salaried employees, according to the latest Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers report put out annually by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and as the report points out, ‘they tend to be young.’ Yet, to hear some politicians talk, increased minimum wages are needed to lift people out of poverty, which most economists have labeled as nonsense. Prior to the coronavirus crisis, NFIB was measuring record highs in employee compensation due mainly to federal tax and regulatory policies. If we’re ever to see that again, every effort should be made at every level of government to spur business re-openings and, equally important, the ability to stay open, by not adding another cost on the backs of small-business owners.”
Keep up with the latest on Nevada small business at www.nfib.com/nevada or by following NFIB on Twitter @NFIB_NV
Contact: Randi Thompson, NFIB Nevada State Director, [email protected]
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, [email protected]
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For more than 77 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since its founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.
NFIB Nevada
12575 Overbrook Dr.
Reno, NV 89511
775-830-8407
www.nfib.com/nevada
Twitter: @NFIB_NV
