US News & World Report: Businesses for Boosting the Minimum Wage

A leaked GOP pollster's report dismantles the perception that businesses oppose raising the minimum wage.

By David Brodwin
US News & World Report, April 8, 2016

Efforts to boost the minimum wage made real progress this week. California just approved an increase to $15 an hour by 2022, with New York close behind. This more than doubles the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. ...

Large national business organizations have strenuously opposed raising the minimum wage. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce couches its opposition in worker-friendly terms, saying that "minimum wage increases end up hurting the people they're intended to help." The National Federation of Independent Businesses is more blunt: "Raising the minimum wage will kill jobs and stifle economic output" said a spokesperson last year.

To listen to these two business groups, you'd get the impression that businesses all over the country are up in arms. But a poll conducted by the research firm of Frank Luntz, a leading GOP messaging guru, says that's not so. Luntz has spent decades advising GOP candidates and elected officials on political communications. His impact on the Republican message goes back to Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America."

LuntzGlobal recently surveyed American business executives, mostly owners and CEOs, for the Council of State Chambers. The study was leaked and is now publicly available. It shows that – far from opposing a minimum wage hike – business leaders support it, by a lopsided margin of 80 percent to 8 percent. (Twelve percent were neutral.)

The Luntz poll contacted 1000 C-suite executives, 73 percent of whom said they are owners or CEOs. Half of them head small businesses (with less than $50 million in annual revenue); the rest lead midsize or larger companies.

The Luntz poll is not entirely new news. Several earlier polls, including one done jointly by the American Sustainable Business Council and Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, also found strong support for a higher minimum wage among businesses owners. But it's nice to have confirmation from a pollster with deep ties to Republican elected officials who oppose a higher minimum wage. ...