Wage Increase Must Include Relief For Small Business

As we in the Senate continue to debate whether to include relief for small business as a part of a minimum wage increase, I urge my colleagues to consider the impact of our actions on the small business community that lives and breathes in the real world.

It will be the small businessman and woman who will be forced to come up with the additional funds to pay his or her workers the higher wage that we are mandating today.  Those funds won’t come from a ‘money tree’ or some pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; they will come out of the pockets of our nation’s small business owners.

The vote today was not a vote against the minimum wage.  It was a vote for all the small businesses and working families.  The Senate today sent a clear signal to Senate and House leaders that including small business relief with a minimum wage hike is an absolute necessity.