Opinions
vary in Central Connecticut on whether to require employers to increase pay for
low wage workers, as Gov. Dannel Malloy proposed.
“This is
good public policy. It’s good economic policy. And it’s the right thing to do,”
Malloy said in his address to the General Assembly that urged an increase in
the minimum wage to $10.10 in 2017.
Some argue,
though, that increasing the minimum wage will reduce the number of jobs and
force consumers to pay more for goods and services.
The owner of
New Britain’s East Side Restaurant, Nick Augustino, said everyone he hires gets
more than the $8.25-an-hour minimum wage so the change wouldn’t matter to his bottom
line.
“I really
would like to know the businesses that pay their staffs minimum wage and get
away with it,” Augustino said.
He said,
though, that he likes the idea of having a minimum wage for entry level
employees who are just learning their jobs. But after three months, Augustino
said, it should go up.
Cary Gagnon,
who owns 20 Dunkin’ Donuts in central Connecticut, said the minimum wage hike
to $9-an-hour already slated to take effect next January “will probably have
little effect on hiring.”
But, he
said, the $10.10 rate sought by Malloy could have a negative impact on hiring
at his stores.
The
president of the Bristol-based Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce said
the state is already raising the minimum wage by 9.1 percent this year and next
year.
“That is
fair and most businesses are able to absorb the increased expense into their
future strategies without too much effect on growth,” Jim Albert said.
He said that
going forward from there, hikes in the minimum wage “should be pegged to annual
increases in the Consumer Price Index or some other standard measure of
inflation, adjusted for our region.”
“This would
take the issue out of the hands of politicians, reducing the amount of divisive
energy and class warfare that goes into a lengthy political debate over minimum
wage increases,” Albert said. “It would also free up our political leadership
to focus on other important topics such as reducing our debt,” promoting good
jobs and “career opportunities that could help make Connecticut more
competitive and attractive in the global marketplace. “
Albert said
that tying the increases to inflation would also “allow Connecticut businesses
to predict their cost of doing business more accurately so they can build
better strategies to grow our economy and improve our quality of life.”
Mike Petosa,
president of the Bristol Labor Council, said that bringing people “to up to a
good living wage” would be “a win-win” for businesses and employees.
He said the
minimum wage “has been too low for too many years” and hiking it will give
people more money to spend, pumping more cash into the economy.
“Earning
power equals buying power,” Petosa said.
The head of
the state’s largest AFL-CIO union, Council 4 of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Workers, also strongly backed Malloy’s proposal.
The union’s
executive director, Sal Luciano, said, “This is important both to reduce our
state’s income gap — the second largest in the nation — and to retain young
workers who are on the verge of leaving the state because wages haven’t kept up
with the cost of living.”
The
president of the Greater New Britain Chamber of Commerce, Tim Stewart, said
there is “no argument people deserve a living wage, no question about it.”
But, he
said, “politicians who just pander to folks” shouldn’t be the ones to deliver
it. Business owners “should have control” of how much they can pay their
employees, he said.
Stewart said
the ramifications of hiking the minimum wage “can be quite substantial,”
especially for service-oriented businesses, and will result in “an increased
cost to the consumer.”
“In the end,
we end up paying for it,” Stewart said.
Robert
Perry, the owner of Fastsigns, a Bristol company, said he would like to see an
increase in the minimum wage at the national level.
Perry said
he’s found that those who earn minimum wage wind up with subsidized medical
care, Food Stamps and other government help that taxpayers have to cover. It
would be better, he said, to hike their pay so there would be less need for the
extra help from the government.
“We pay for
it up front” with higher prices or “we pay for it later with subsidized cost,”
Perry said, but “either way we’re paying for it.”
Perry, whose
own company pays “far more than minimum wage,” said his reservation about
Malloy’s proposal is that it would encourage consumers to buy out-of-state
because Connecticut costs would be higher. He said a national hike makes more
sense.
The owner of
the Zen Bar in Plainville, Giancarlo Garcia-Zimmitti, said he favors Malloy’s
plan for hiking the minimum wage over time.
He said his
restaurant has “already been progressive” about staying ahead of the minimum,
but he knows there are other businesses that need some time to adjust.
Malloy’s
proposal would increase the minimum wage to $9.15 an hour next January, then to
$9.60 an hour in 2016 and then to $10.10 an hour in 2017. Whether the
legislature will go along is uncertain.
Hiking the
minimum more quickly than Malloy proposed would “the kiss of death” for some
companies, Garcia-Zimmitti said, but easing into it should give businesses time
to adjust.
A Quinnipiac
University poll last spring found Connecticut residents backed an increase in
the state minimum wage hike by a 75-22 margin.
