FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Matthew Haller, 202-662-0770
Jenna Weisbord, 202-662-0766
mhaller@franchise.org
jweisbord@franchise.org
IFA STATEMENT FOLLOWING SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ON MINIMUM WAGE
WASHINGTON, March 12, 2014 —The International Franchise Association President & CEO Steve Caldeira released the below statement following today’s Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s hearing on a proposal by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 over three years.
“ Franchises have developed successful programs designed to help employees rise from entry level to management and ownership. Mandating a higher minimum wage to $10.10 an hour ultimately hurts those it intends to help, by reducing the availability of entry-level jobs that are critical to acquire the skills needed to move up the economic ladder.
“As emphasized in the recent study on wage increases by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office , a mandated hike in the minimum wage would result in loss of 500,000 jobs by 2016. A drastic increase in the minimum wage will put jobs and local economies at risk.
“Many of these franchisees are already operating on thin margins due to new compliance costs associated with the Affordable Care Act employer mandate and tax hikes. With 20 million people unemployed, under-employed or that have given-up looking for work, higher costs on small business owners is not a recipe to successfully produce the jobs this country desperately needs.”
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About the International Franchise Association
The International Franchise Association is the world’s oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. Celebrating over 50 years of excellence, education and advocacy, IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising. Through its media awareness campaign highlighting the theme, Franchising: Building Local Businesses, One Opportunity at a Time, IFA promotes the economic impact of the more than 825,000 franchise establishments, which support nearly 18 million jobs and $2.1 trillion of economic output for the U.S. economy. IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees and companies that support the industry in marketing, law and business development.
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