The minimum wage was due for an increase, but it was important that we offset its cost to small businesses.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Raising the minimum wage represents a substantial financial burden for employers, particularly start-ups, early stage companies, and family-owned businesses. In response, business owners would be forced to either lay off workers or raise prices to offset the rise in labor costs.
The minimum wage is something that F.D.R. put in place a long time ago during the Great Depression. I don't think it worked then. It didn't solve any problems then and it hasn't solved any problems in 50 years.
The minimum wage was enacted in 1937 during the Great Depression and it has been increased 16 times. It's a well-established economic policy to help families.
Raising the minimum wage means we have workers paying more in to support the Social Security system.
I do not support raising the minimum wage, and the reason is as follows. When the minimum wage is raised, workers are priced out of the market. That is the economic reality that seems, at least so far, to be missing from this discussion.
A minimum wage leads to higher levels of unemployment.
The minimum wage is the black teenage unemployment act. It is the guaranteed way of holding the poor, the minorities and the disenfranchised out of the mainstream is if you price their original services too high.
I know in the past Republicans have agreed to minimum-wage increases that there's built-in protections for small and midsize businesses.
We took the position we wanted our people to be better than minimum wage, so we're going to pay better than minimum wage, and we still do that.
When I started in the business, the minimum wage was $1.25. I've seen an enormous number of wage increases. Basically, it applies evenly to everyone in the business.