Many Small Businesses Support Raising Minimum Wage

It seems that the prevailing opinion in this country is that while a substantial majority of the public supports raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, a majority of businesses (especially small business owners) would oppose that. But if you believe that, you may be selling small business owners short.

The Small Business Majority recently polled 500 of their members on the question between February 18th and 25th, and that survey (which has a margin of error of 4 points) may surprise you. The poll found that a majority (57%) of small business owners support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour (and believe it would not put them at a competitive disadvantage since the law would apply equally to all businesses). And 52% believe small businesses will be helped because workers will have more money to spend.

Even more surprising is the fact that retail and restaurant small businesses, the businesses with the most low-wage workers, have a even higher support for raising the minimum wage (about 61%). They seem to know that an employee who makes a wage that will cover his/her living expenses is a happier, more motivated, more productive, and more loyal employee.

For those of you who may think this survey was slanted some way toward liberals, I provide the chart below which gives the demographics of the poll's respondents. Note that most respondents were White (78%), Male (63%), had incomes over $100,000 (53%), and were Republican (47%) rather than Democratic (35%).