It seems as if lawmakers in Harrisburg have quickly forgotten about steps taken by the Wolf administration during the COVID-19 pandemic that crippled many of Pennsylvania’s small businesses and ultimately forced far too many to close their doors entirely. Right now, the Pennsylvania General Assembly is debating another move that could once again crush the commonwealth’s greatest job creators — a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour.
As a small business owner, it has been difficult to listen to the tone-deaf arguments of those who support raising the minimum wage. The reality is that many of these supporters have never signed the front of a paycheck, let alone run a business. It’s time for lawmakers to stop placing obstacles in the way of Pennsylvania’s small business owners still trying to survive in an uncertain economy borne from the pandemic, which also has led to record-high inflation.
Sadly, my wife, Tracey, and I speak from experience on this issue. Prior to the pandemic and the draconian unilateral measures taken by the Wolf administration, Tracey owned a female fitness center. Through hard work, she built a small business that provided 50 jobs and a membership roll that reached as high as 1,000. Then the lockdowns and government mandates came.
Within the first year that these unprecedented measures were implemented by the unwieldy Wolf administration, my wife’s small business lost more than half of its members. She tried everything to make changes in a new...
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