Sunday, May 08, 2016

Wage Increase Concerns Chamber of Commerce


MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES IMPACT LOCAL BUSINESSES

The Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce is voicing concern about the impact that today’s announcement of two larger-than-expected minimum wage increases will have on local businesses.

These two minimum wage increases will be tough for businesses across the province and especially tough on the small businesses that make up much of Nanaimo’s economic landscape,” said Kim Smythe, Chamber CEO. “These substantial, unexpected increases to minimum wage have the greatest impact on very small, family-owned businesses, whose only choice is typically to cut back on part-time, lower-wage-earning workers... thus hurting the very people such increases are designed to help."

In order to partially mitigate the impact on the small business community, the government has also committed to reduce the small business tax rate by 40% (from 2.5% to 1.5%) by 2017-18. This had previously been announced without tying it into the minimum wage increase.

The Chamber recognizes that the government had been clear about its intention to raise B.C.’s minimum wage relative to other Canadian jurisdictions, to match B.C.’s strong recent economic performance. However, going forward, the Chamber urges government to return to tying minimum wage increases to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as had been the policy directive of the Chamber.

Certainty and predictability are key words that should be guiding decision-making in this area,” Smythe went on to say, “When the minimum wage increases, other wages increase and that heavily impacts small business. Quite simply, we need to take the politics out of minimum wage increases.”


allvoices

6 comments:

  1. Extensive research refutes the claim that increasing the minimum wage causes increased unemployment and business closures.

    The buying power of the minimum wage reached its peak in 1968. The unemployment rate went from 3.8% in 1967 to 3.6% in 1968 to 3.5% in 1969. The next time the unemployment rate came close to those levels was after the minimum wage raises of 1996 and 1997. Business Week observed in 2001, “Many economists have backed away from the argument that minimum wage [laws] lead to fewer jobs.”

    Numerous states raised their minimum wages higher than the federal level during the 1997-2007 period. Research by the Fiscal Policy Institute and others showed that states that raised their minimum wages above the federal level experienced better employment and small business trends than states that did not.

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    1. Extensive research substantiates the claim that increasing the minimum wage causes job loss. For example here is a recent summary:

      How do we summarize this evidence? Many studies over the years find that higher minimum wages reduce employment of teens and low-skilled workers more generally. Recent exceptions that find no employment effects typically use a particular version of estimation methods with close geographic controls that may obscure job losses. Recent research using a wider variety of methods to address the problem of comparison states tends to confirm earlier findings of job loss. Coupled with critiques of the methods that generate little evidence of job loss, the overall body of recent evidence suggests that the most credible conclusion is a higher minimum wage results in some job loss for the least-skilled workers—with possibly larger adverse effects than earlier research suggested.

      http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2015/december/effects-of-minimum-wage-on-employment/

      If hiking up the minimum has no impact on the job market like you say, then let's raise it to $100 or $200 an hour so everyone can get the benefit.

      Delete
  2. Al C T Thompson8 May 2016 at 22:43

    If your business can not afford the increase ,,maybe it is time to get out of Dodge...

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  3. If I were making minimum wage I would want a raise. If I were a small business person I would oppose it. Simple.Let self interest fight it out.

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  4. how about we look at the unholy wage disparity, and the immoral off shore tax evading 'companies' before we demonize minimum wage earners with trumped up statistics---- eh !!!!!

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  5. too much dole being handed out everywhere

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