AIM: Delay any minimum wage jump to 2015
A key business lobbying group, acknowledging that Massachusetts lawmakers want to raise the minimum wage, is urging that any increase not take effect until Jan. 1 of next year.
In a letter to key lawmakers today, Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) also said proposed increases to the minimum wage over the next few years should be “as modest as possible” and not exceed $10.50 an hour.
That falls in line with the proposal by the House of Representatives, which wants to raise the wage to $10.50 in three steps over three years. The Senate, meanwhile, would raise it to $11 in three steps, but also index future increases to inflation. AIM said it opposes the indexing plan in the Senate bill.
But while AIM prefers the House’s approach, it has previously cited a “serious concern” in a July 1 implementation, which is being considered by a House-Senate conference committee. Rather, AIM advocates that a hike in the minimum wage not take effect until Jan. 1, 2015 and that all subsequent increases take effect at the start of a calendar year.
The organization, which represents 4,500 employers in the Bay State, says there are “sound economic reasons” not to raise the wage. “Increasing the minimum wage has the perverse effect of limiting opportunity for young and lower-skilled workers and pushing jobs out of the market.
“Far from helping poor people, increasing the minimum wage simply ensures that people whose skills do not justify that wage will not find jobs,” read the letter, authored by John R. Regan, AIM’s executive vice president for government affairs.
In the same letter, Regan cited AIM’s “disappointment” that neither the House nor Senate appear willing to lower the maximum number of weeks an unemployed Bay State resident can collect unemployment insurance from 30 to 26, or increase the time people must work before becoming eligible to collect benefits. However, it supports language in the House bill that would freeze through 2017 the insurance rates under which employers pay into the unemployment insurance fund.
(Material from State House News Service was used in this report.)
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments