A Labor and Public Employees committee hearing in New Haven is being described as a double-edged sword by the National Federation of Independent Business. Policy reforms on the unemployment tax are welcome but a proposal for a $15 minimum wage isn’t.
The minimum wage bill would have a detrimental impact on small business, NFIB Connecticut state director Andrew Markowski said. “Just when you think the legislature is out of bad ideas, they manage to dust off minimum wage increase proposals before they’ve even finished phasing in their last bright idea,” he added.
What Markowski terms the “last bright idea” is the scheduled minimum wage increase to $10.10 per hour on Jan. 1, 2017. He said further increases would hurt job creation and halt any improvement in Connecticut’s economy.
John Brady, executive vice president of Connecticut AFT, a union which represents 30,000 members, testified in a hearing yesterday in Hartford that increasing the minimum wage would help boost the economy. “Our lower paid citizens must spend a larger percentage of their income just to survive,” he said.
Markowski is more positive on a proposal to reform unemployment insurance. “Lawmakers would be much better suited to focus their efforts on making the state more hospitable for businesses, and unemployment insurance reform is a great place to start,” he said.
