In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. While Obama says the pay increase would increase customer spending for businesses, business owners in the Capital Region say it would cause them to hire fewer workers. “It either will cause pay loss in hours, or it will create the problem whereby small business will not hire,” says Pat Felder, owner of Felder’s Collision Parts. Although Felder says she doesn’t hire for less than $10 an hour, raising the minimum wage in Louisiana to $9 from $7.25 would affect the earning power of workers who earned raises: “Well, I’ve got to bump everybody else up,” she says. Felder is also chairwoman of BRAC’s board of directors, but she declined to state BRAC’s position on raising the minimum wage. A BRAC spokeswoman says the area chamber has not done any research on the subject and has no statement. Associated Grocers CEO J.H. “Jay” Campbell Jr., for his part, says the market should dictate what unskilled workers make, not the government. “Right now the minimum wage for the most part is an entry-level wage,” says Campbell, who also echoes Felder’s sentiment. “You raise that floor, and you tend to push all other wages up, and it’s inflationary.” Associated Grocers doesn’t hire workers at minimum wage, but Campbell says AG’s retailers do. The Louisiana Retailers Association did not return calls to Daily Report seeking comment. —Adam Pearson
Today’s poll: Do you agree with President Barack Obama’s call for raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour?
