ALBANY, N.Y. -- Reacting to a press release from a group called Fair Elections for New York (FENY) targeting "campaign contributions to State Senators and political committees by corporations, organizations and lobbyists" over the issue of increasing the minimum wage, James Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores (NYACS), said in a statement that it "sounds like we're on Big Labor's hit list for daring to express concern about the impact of a minimum wage increase on small businesses."
The release specifies that "the top donors [to state Senators' campaigns and party committees] were the New York Association of Convenience Stores and its principle members, contributing $133,613."
The rest of Calvin's statement reads:
Our campaign contributions are a matter of public record. Since the minimum wage bill was introduced earlier this year, our share of the purported "massive influence of CEO campaign cash" has been $12,650--the equivalent of $8 per NYACS member store, and probably less than organized labor spends on TV and radio commercials in a single day.
This $12,650 has been contributed by Convenience PAC, the political action committee of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, to both Democratic and Republican members of both the Senate and the Assembly.
I don't know what "principle members" is supposed to mean, but NYACS does not tell its member companies whether to contribute to campaigns, how much to give or where to direction contributions. To presume that all those members who chose to contribute to a candidate over the past three years cared about the minimum wage issue is a reach.
Overall, methinks the "vast right conspiracy" theory presented by FENY this morning is a bit exaggerated.
New contracts negotiated with unions representing state employees call for zero general pay increases in Years 1, 2 and 3. If the State of New York can't afford to give its workers any raises for the next three years, what makes anyone think small businesses can afford to give their hourly workforce a 17% raise this year alone?
As New York struggles to emerge from recession, organized labor is advocating across-the-board hourly wage inflation of 17%, plus proportionate increases in the employer's costs for payroll taxes, workers comp, federal and state unemployment insurance, etc.
Yet between declining motor fuel demand, skyrocketing credit card swipe fee expenses and the loss of tobacco customers to state-induced tax evasion, the convenience store industry's overall sales are flat or declining in New York. Thus, to absorb such an increase in payroll expense, our members would have two options, neither of which is desirable for their workers, their businesses or the economy:
1.) Raise prices proportionately, sparking inflation, which would compound New York State's economic troubles and erase the increased buying power of lower-wage recipients; or
2.) Reduce staff and/or benefits, resulting in fewer job opportunities and less coverage for those New Yorkers that the higher wage is ostensibly designed to help.
Click here to view the full FENY press release.
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