Small Business Urges Christie to Reject Minimum Wage Hike
By Press Release Thursday, January 12, 2012, 05:26 PM EST
Trenton (January 12, 2012) – The state’s leading advocate for small business owners today urged Governor Chris Christie to reject a proposal to raise the minimum wage because it would likely benefit workers everywhere in the Mid-Atlantic region except New Jersey.
“We would be immediately isolated in the region as the most expensive state in which to create new jobs and the opportunities will flow to the other states,” said Laurie Ehlbeck, State Director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). “It’s a bad idea and we strongly urge the Governor to resist raising labor costs in the middle of an unemployment crisis.”
Ehlbeck responded to news today that Governor Christie, while not inclined to support a minimum wage hike, is willing to listen to Democrats in the Legislature who have made it a priority this year.
“There are volumes of research showing that higher minimum wage laws discourage job creation, and the people who get hit hardest are the people who can least afford it,” said Ehlbeck.
She pointed to studies by the University of California, Irvine, and elsewhere showing that higher minimum wage laws make it harder for entry-level workers to find jobs.
“Employers that can’t afford the increase will simply avoid hiring new workers. And the jobs that are available will be more attractive to people who have more experience and longer resumes,” said Ehlbeck. “People with the fewest skills and the shortest experience all of a sudden find themselves competing with more qualified candidates who are willing to work for the higher minimum wage.
“And that’s especially true in a bad economy when a lot of older workers are looking for part-time jobs to make ends meet,” she continued. “It prevents people on the bottom rungs of the ladder from getting entry-level jobs.”
Ehlbeck noted too that the proposal being pushed in the Legislature would make New Jersey’s minimum wage higher than any of its immediate neighbors.
“What we don’t need now is another reason to discourage businesses from creating jobs in New Jersey,” she said.
For more information about NFIB, please visit www.nfib.com/new_york.
