Family Life

12.05.12 | Sarah Harnisch

One of the topics sure to come up in the New York State Legislature in 2013 is a minimum wage increase, from 7-25 an hour to 8-50. But a business group said Tuesday the hike would do irreperable damage to small businesses across the state. The report from the National Federation of Independent Businesses found the proposal would result in 22-thousand less jobs across the Empire state, a 2.5 billion dollar hit to the state economy. They said "simply speaking, hiking the minimum wage will not create jobs. It will hit small businesses so hard they'll have to respond by hiring fewer people." Democrats argue when wages go up, people are able to spend. They predict a 600 million dollar boost to the state economy with a minimum wage hike.