When you increase the minimum wage, the national and international businesses can readily accept the rise in costs for labor; when you introduce an increase like this in the small-business community, shops close and people may lose their jobs, or services get cut, making the business less competitive. With so much going against Main Street in terms of regulatory red tape and one of the highest tax burdens in the U.S., can we really afford to make it harder to do business in our state? I’ve run a small business for decades, and I can tell you the damage Albany has done to the small-business community. This bill would further harm the small-business owner and the long-term success of the small- business community.

Assemblyman David DiPietro is the Ranking Minority Member of the Assembly Committee on Small Business.