$15 Minimum Wage Will Hurt Connecticut

One day ahead of a scheduled public hearing, State Representative Craig Fishbein (R-90) today encouraged his colleagues not to make major policy decisions about raising the minimum wage based on emotion and to continue important discussions about raising the rate while weighing the legitimate concerns of Connecticut employees and employers.

This session, legislative Democrats have made hiking the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour a legislative priority.  Currently, Connecticut’s minimum wage is $10.10. The federal minimum wage is $7.25.

“Raising the state’s minimum wage is not as simple an issue as Democrats would like us to believe and arbitrarily raising the number does not address the many legitimate concerns shared by citizens and businesses across our state,” Rep. Fishbein said. “Promoting feel-good legislation to garner positive headlines is not leadership and does not take into account the unintended consequences of these actions, including the possibility of businesses cutting employee work hours, reducing staff levels or modifying their business plans by utilizing technology that requires fewer employees.”

Rep. Fishbein pointed out that a substantial minimum wage increase could hurt the very people advocates claim they’re trying to help. Increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour could push family incomes past earnings thresholds that could impact a person’s eligibility for government assistance programs like daycare subsidies and healthcare, and could severely hamper lower wage workers and restaurant servers’ ability to earn a living.  Charitable organizations could also be affected with less available funding to provide programs and services for their clients due to having to pay increased wages to employees.

“As the minimum wage goes up the ability of businesses to operate profitably goes down, and this proposal will harm less experienced workers the most,” Rep. Fishbein said. “When businesses are forced to pay substantially higher wages they’re absolutely going to hire experienced and skilled workers who provide the most benefit or they’re going to cut staff. Younger workers will also be negatively affected as employers forsake teenagers looking to earn money while developing crucial life skills to hire experienced older workers. Many companies will implement more automation to replace workers altogether.”

If you’d like to weigh in on the issue, the Labor Committee will hold a Public Hearing on Thursday, March 7 beginning at 11:00 a.m. in Room 1D of the Legislative Office Building. You can email testimony to LABtestimony@cga.ct.gov, or if you’d like to testify in-person you can sign up beginning at 9:00 a.m.in Suite 3800 of the Legislative Office Building.

–