Layoffs which employers attributed to the minimum wage increase represented less than one-half of a percent of total employment in affected firms. Further, one half of all employers reporting layoffs actually increased employment in the same year. This is highly unlikely, given the low unemployment rate. If small businesses are going to hire skilled workers away from other businesses, then this creates opportunities for the less skilled to slot into the new vacancies. It also gives employers incentives to train workers to fill these slots.
Small business can either pass on wage increases to consumers or cut back wages and jobs.
Both the impacts of the federal minimum wage increase and the increase in Oregon s minimum wage prove that job loss simply does not occur . The possible profit decline is what drives the opposition to the minimum wage increase. I ll go out of business, Taimi Dunn Gorman said. But what it really amounts to is that raising wages might mean one less trip to Hawaii. Again, this is an assertion that is not backed up by the facts.