I’m particularly irritated by the presumption that Republicans are pro-business. How so, if they are against fair wages for workers?
ABQJournal Online » Talk of the Town
Small Businesses Support Living Wage
RAISING ALBUQUERQUE’S minimum wage would help small businesses like my own compete with the large, national retail and restaurant chains that pay rock-bottom wages to their workers. I pay significantly more than the minimum wage — even to my lowest-level employees, and many other small-business owners in Albuquerque, pay above the minimum wage as well.
Our responsible, living-wage business model is good for our bottom lines and for Albuquerque’s economy, and raising the minimum wage will ensure that profitable national restaurant and retail chains play by the same rules.
Critics like David Foster (“Higher Minimum Wage a Threat to Economy”) neglect to mention that small businesses cannot survive without a strong consumer base, and when big box retailers and other chains — the same big businesses that I suspect are leading the opposition to the minimum wage increase — pay low wages to pad their profits, they are taking money out of the community and denying their workers the income needed to shop at local businesses and to support the local economy.
Given the profits that large chains like McDonald’s and Walmart bring in, they can easily afford to pay their employees $1 more an hour. In turn, raising the minimum wage would boost consumer spending in Albuquerque and support job growth as businesses expand to meet increasing customer demand.
Workers and many business owners like myself support raising the minimum wage to bring fairness and growth to Albuquerque’s economy. Trickle-down economies don’t work when the faucet is closed tight.
TRAVIS PARKIN
Albuquerque