Minimum Wage Increase: Much Ado About Nothing for Most Small Business Owners according to SurePayroll Survey

(PRLEAP.COM) CHICAGO — February 21, 2007 — Small business owners are not losing much sleep about an increase in the national minimum wage, according to a recent survey by national SurePayroll ( http://www.surepayroll.com )

According to the SurePayroll survey, 51 percent of small businesses don’t even know what the minimum wage is in their state.

Of the small business owners surveyed by SurePayroll, only 3 percent pay the national minimum wage to some of their employees. Only 6 percent of the respondents pay a state-mandated minimum wage to some of their employees. The remaining respondents (91 percent) are not affected by minimum wage laws because they pay all of their employees more than the minimum wage.

"Most small businesses are paying more than the national minimum-wage, so an increase in the minimum wage has little to no effect on those small businesses," SurePayroll President Michael Alter said.

SurePayroll’s survey confirms that the majority (70 percent) of owners support increasing the national minimum wage. However, opinions vary as to how large the increase should be.

Question:
Congress is currently considering raising the minimum wage to $7.25. What is your opinion on this issue?

(309 respondents)
I don’t think there should be any increase - 25.6%
I support an increase but think $7.25 is too high - 21%
I think there should be an increase to $7.25 - 37.9%
I think the increase should be higher than $7.25 - 11%
Don’t know or don’t care - 4.5%

Most owners (79.5 percent) say an increase in the minimum wage will have no impact on their businesses. 15.6 percent say the increase will have a negative impact, while 4.9 percent say the increase will have a positive impact.

While many businesses indicate that their businesses will not be affected by the minimum wage increase, they expect the overall effect on the small business economy will be negative. In fact, nearly 59 percent of respondents indicate that the rise in the minimum wage will have an inflationary effect on the economy and nearly 10 percent believe that many business owners will close down as a result of the increase.

Question:
Generally speaking, what effect do you think a minimum wage increase to $7.25 will have on the small business economy?

(308 respondents)
Very little effect - 23.3%
Business owners will survive but will raise their prices - 58.6%
Many business owners will close down, destroying jobs in the process - 9.7%
Other - 8.4%

However, many respondents (35 percent) believe that increasing the minimum wage could help reduce poverty.

Finally, many small business owners don’t seem to like the idea that they will have to pay a higher minimum wage without receiving any offsetting breaks. Nearly 69 percent of respondents say that small businesses receive some breaks to offset the minimum wage increase, whereas over 31 percent say no offsetting breaks should be given.

SurePayroll’s survey was conducted during the week of January 8, 2007. Total respondents numbered 311, providing statistically significant results at the 95% confidence level and a margin of error of +/- 5%. Respondents were selected randomly from across the nation from a sample set of over 18,000 small businesses.

About SurePayroll
Privately held SurePayroll is America’s fifth largest full-service payroll provider and the nation’s largest online full-service payroll provider. SurePayroll is passionate about small businesses and their payroll. They are dedicated to providing an extremely friendly and simple payroll experience — at a price small business owners can afford. SurePayroll processed nearly $3 billion in employee and contractor payroll payments in 2006. For more information, visit www.surepayroll.com.