HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 14, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry today cautioned that raising the minimum wage would essentially amount to a tax on small business - the backbone of the Commonwealth's economy.
"Most low-wage earners work for small businesses, not large corporations," said PA Chamber President Floyd Warner. "These small businesses are a critical stepping stone into the labor force for most workers."
While small businesses create 75 percent of new jobs annually, they are also responsible for most job losses. With so many already overburdened by skyrocketing health insurance premiums and other rising costs, a mandated wage hike would push many over the edge, destroying jobs in the process.
Warner stressed that business growth is the cure for improving the lives of low-income workers and all working families in Pennsylvania.
"Proponents of raising the minimum wage consistently used flawed demographics and economics in making their argument," he said. "Mandated wages are job killers. Unless business productivity increases sufficiently to generate enough revenue to pay for this 'tax,' affected businesses will be forced to cut their work force and spread the same amount of money over fewer workers."
Warner said raising the minimum wage would hurt the very people it is purported to help.
"The least-skilled workers in the labor pool - those who most need to get and keep their feet on the first rung of the job ladder - would be the first to lose their jobs," he said. "These low-skilled workers would also find it more difficult to enter the labor market since employers favor more highly skilled workers in the face of higher wages."
Warner said lawmakers have an opportunity this fall to help all working families, not just the 1.5 percent of the population earning the minimum wage - many young, still living at home and not their family's sole bread winner, according to a recent study.
"If Pennsylvania truly wants to help people, it must reduce the barriers and mandates that are placed on employers and serve to inhibit job creation.
"Reducing taxes, enabling employers to provide affordable health care, and improving our legal and labor law systems - all ideas being advanced by the PA Chamber's more than 9,000 members in their Agenda for Jobs - are the true sources of economic opportunity and advancement," he said. "This would do far more good than hiking the minimum wage, which would benefit some to the detriment of job creators and those most in need of employment."
The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry is the state's largest broad-based business association, with more than 9,000 members covering all 67 counties. More information is available on the Chamber's website at www.pachamber.org.
The PA Chamber of Business and Industry logo is available at: http://media.primezone.com/prs/single/?pkgid=353