NFIB Study Finds PA Minimum Wage Bills Kill Jobs

Thanks to a recent minimum wage increase, 61 percent of New Jersey businesses are likely to raise their prices. In addition, a Congressional Budget Office analysis found increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 would benefit some at the cost of eliminating about 500,000 jobs for other low-wage workers. Despite these foreboding predictions, Pennsylvania lawmakers have proposed raising the minimum wage.

Last week the National Federation of Independent Business released a study analyzing each Pennsylvania proposal. They found Pennsylvania, depending on inflation, could lose as many as 28,000 to 119,000 jobs in the next 10 years. Over half of the jobs lost will come from small businesses.

• HB 1039 raises the minimum wage to $8.75 per hour and bases future increases on cost-of-living adjustments. NFIB predicts it will cost between 46,000 and 110,300 jobs.  
• HB 1057 raises the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour and bases future increases on cost-of-living adjustments. It will cost between 53,400 and 118,800 jobs.
• SB 326 does not mandate an amount, but allows the minimum wage to increase contingent upon cost-of-living adjustments. It’s estimated to cost about 56,900 jobs by 2023.

To help low-wage earners, lawmakers should steer clear of New Jersey’s bad idea and spur economic growth which increases wages and employment.  According to a Mercatus study, a one-percentage point drop in the corporate tax rate would likely increase annual economic growth by 0.1 to 0.2%. 

Even Bill Gates and the New York Times have noted that minimum wage hikes reduce job options for low-income earners, thereby failing to lift families out of poverty.