ALBANY — A proposal to hike the state’s minimum wage would kill 22,000 jobs over the next decade and cut economic output by $2.5 billion, New York’s small- business lobby claimed in a study released yesterday.
The National Federation of Independent Business report estimates that seven of every 10 job losses would occur in small businesses, which would find “ways to reduce or limit the number of jobs they create,” NFIB state director Mike Durant said.
The proposal by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) to increase New York’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $8.50 with annual indexing for inflation got a boost yesterday as a new bipartisan ruling state Senate coalition signaled it would take up a hike.
Durant said inflation could drive up the cost of hiring an entry-level worker by as much as two thirds by 2022.