Today may be known as Black Friday, but we’d note that this Saturday is Small Business Saturday, billed as a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities. Let’s hope it’s a profitable celebration. It was reported this week that Starbucks introduced another round of price increases for their…
Read More »She has said she won’t budge on a $15 per hour minimum wage bill she’s sponsored in Baltimore, so Councilwoman Mary Pat Clark introduced an amendment last week to exempt all businesses with 50 or fewer employees or less than $500,000 in gross annual revenue from the mandate. Ostensibly, she is looking for a way…
Read More »Although most of the states’ automatic minimum wage increases are effective on the first day of either January or July every year, there are exceptions and Minnesota is one of them. The Gopher State has a two-tiered minimum wage, with the tier determined by the annual sales of a business. Effective Monday, August 1, the…
Read More »The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council has released its Small Business Tax Index for 2016 a week or so ago with South Dakota, Nevada and Texas holding the top 3 spots for this year. The index measures and ranks the tax systems for all 50 states as to their competitiveness for small business and entrepreneurs. …
Read More »The latest issue of Chief Executive magazine surveyed over 500 CEOs across the country to determine which states were considered most business-friendly from a tax and regulatory perspective and which were the least favored by the business community. The top four states (Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee) favorably perceived held the same position as…
Read More »Although at press time, there were still few details on the formal budget agreement in New York state, we do know that the final document includes an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour and a new paid sick leave mandate. Business interests in New York had pushed back vigorously against Governor Cuomo’s…
Read More »As the 2016 Presidential campaign gets deeper into the spring months and closer to the two party conventions this summer, the importance of the decisions voters will make this fall is coming more into focus. At this juncture, small business owners are losing faith in the choices they’ll potentially see on the ballot come November. …
Read More »The International Franchise Association (IFA) on Monday filed an amicus brief in conjunction with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) supporting a lawsuit challenging the NY fast-food minimum wage. The National Restaurant Association (NRA) originally challenged the discriminatory ‘fast-food-only minimum wage increase’ when it was first mandated by the NY Fast Food Wage Board,…
Read More »Although the broader business community is often portrayed as totally opposed to paid leave, a recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) seems to indicate that small businesses are more open to and flexible about how they provide paid leave for their employees rather than opposed to the notion. The bigger issue…
Read More »It’s been over six years since the 2700-page Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) was rammed down the throats of Americans (over 60% of whom were opposed to its passage), so what to do for an encore? President Obama now wants to mandate that small business next provide retirement plans for all employees – full and part-time. …
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