Small businesses fearful
One News reports:
Under the coalition deal in April next year the minimum wage will go up by seventy-five-cents to $16.50 an hour, by April 2021 people on the minimum wage will get $20 an hour.
A small business owner in Nelson is worried the rise in wages will mean they have to raise prices and possibly let staff go.
“It’ll always go back onto the consumer, so our prices will have to go up, so if we have clients we have clients, if we don’t we don’t,” cleaning company owner Sarah Stewart told 1 NEWS.
The Prime Minister-elect is promising to look at models in places like Australia that offer tax breaks to small businesses to try and offset the cost.
Almost no-one in Labour has even worked in the private sector so they don’t understand that legislated increases in costs means employers may go under, or reduce staff.
Bastardising the tax code is not an answer either. However reducing the corporate tax rate would help.