The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Jobs Report for June showed a worsening economy with small businesses cutting employment by 0.28 workers per firm on average compared to just 0.17 workers per firm last month.
“Despite the uncertainty, concern and fear among small business owners, they are doing everything they possibly can to keep and grow their employee base to survive, which is shocking given the challenges of COVID-19 combined with the continued onslaught of terrible anti-business policy that our state lawmakers and leaders continue to advance,” said John Kabateck, California state director for NFIB.
The three measures that create added burdens for business owners include:
The gas tax, which doesn’t just impact employees who drive to work each day with new costs, according to Kabateck. Senate Bill 1 added 3.2 cents a gallon to the current gas tax so that now it’s hovering at 50.5 cents a gallon, according to media reports. “Even though many are working from home due to the pandemic, we also have trucks, fleets of delivery services and other drivers that are now going to be severely hit. We are relying on those methods of transportation and the supply chain and as those costs go up with the gas tax, so will our goods and services,” Kabateck told the Southern California Record.
Senate Bill 1383, which expands family leave time for employees. Staffers employed by a business with more than five workers are eligible for up to 12 weeks of family leave time, according to the LA Times. “California already offers a combination of more than 10 different employee leave programs,” Kabateck said in an interview. “We are the most generous when it comes to employee leave and benefit programs. Why on earth are we adding to the cost burdens for already struggling mom and pop businesses?”
Minimum wage increases. According to the California Department of Industrial Relations, the minimum wage will increase to $15 an hour for businesses with more than 26 employees by 2022. “Minimum wage was never supposed to be an ongoing forever wage,” said Kabateck. “It's a starting wage. The real problem with minimum wage increase is the ripple effect where employees at other levels will demand automatic increases when employees should be evaluated and given fair compensation based on their performance especially during a crisis like this.”
The NFIB study further found that 51 percent of business owners tried to hire in June and 84% of those hiring or trying to hire reported few or no qualified applications for the positions they were trying to fill, up 6 points from the month of May.
“Let's push the pause button and give our number one job creators a chance to crawl out of the hole they’re already in,” Kabateck said.