NFIB – The Voice of Small Business

by | October 13, 2005

I recently attended a seminar sponsored by the Washington State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce where Carolyn Logue from the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) https://www.nfib.com/ spoke about the organization and key issues they are lobbying for in the upcoming legislative session. The NFIB is a membership organization for small businesses that surveys its members to determine the key issues that should be addressed by the State and Federal legislatures. They then lobby on their members’ behalves to affect change. The key issues on the agenda right now are affordable health care for small businesses and employment costs. The impact of a slight change in employment costs at the national or state level has a much more dramatic impact on small businesses. Let’s take minimum wage as an example. Small businesses often employ unskilled workers and train them to be more productive members of the workforce. An increase in minimum wage requires the small business to obtain a higher level of productivity from each worker due to the overall higher costs of employment. Unskilled workers, therefore, never get the opportunity to get in the door and get the training. Another scenario is when a new worker is brought on and minimum wage increases. The small business often does not have the cash to pay the increase in minimum wage for the brand new employee who isn’t as productive and to compensate employees with longer tenure and higher productivity. The end result is that the lower skilled employees lose out with the minimum wage increases. A similar effect occurs with any employment related increase such as payroll taxes, health insurance requirements, etc. Analysis such as this is eye opening. Impacts such as these should be considered by small business owners when choosing candidates and legislation to support — not simply how a position will impact your business but its overall impact to the small business community.

Author: Michelle Bomberger, Bellevue Business Attorney