By Heesun Wee, Editor CNBC.com
CNBC, March 26, 2013
The fight over an increase to the minimum wage ... has already begun in Congress. And small employers on both sides of the issue — armed with plenty of Tweets, videos, press releases and data — have entered the fray. ...
backers of a higher minimum wage have been busy too, cobbling together press releases — complete with names, locations and comments from small-business owners. High-profile CEOs of publicly-traded companies such as Costco and Starbucks have also stepped into the minimum-wage debate. ...
Supporters include the Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a network of business owners and executives. Backers of a higher minimum wage point to studies that have found an increase in minimum wages did not result in job cuts.
Adjusted for inflation, a minimum-wage worker had more purchasing power — in other words could buy more groceries and gasoline — more than 40 years ago compared to the minimum wage worker making $7.25 an hour today, said Holly Sklar, founder of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.
"You can't have the real value of the wage, the real adjusted value going down. You can't build an economy on these downward mobile wages," she said.
Meanwhile, "corporate profits are at their highest since 1950, as a percentage of national income, while the share going to employees is near its low point. We can't build a strong economy on a falling wage floor," the group said in a separate press release.
A Lot at Stake
Whether you're for or against the minimum-wage hike, the potential change comes with much at stake for both Main Street and the broader economy. Corporate profits have been rising along with new records for the stock market. But small employers, for the most part, have failed to generate robust job growth, which has traditionally paved the way for past economic recoveries. ...
But other business leaders argue good wages makes good business sense. "We pay a starting hourly wage of $11.50 in all states where we do business, and we are still able to keep our overhead costs low," said Craig Jelinek, Costco's president and chief executive. He was cited in a press release for the Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.
"An important reason for the success of Costco's business model is the attraction and retention of great employees," Jelinek said.
By CNBC's Heesun Wee; Follow her on Twitter @heesunwee
Copyright 2013 CNBC.com