Wash. Post Report: Leaked Poll Proves Most Businesses Support Raising Minimum Wage

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/04/04/wash-post-report-leaked-poll-proves-most-busine/209733
"On April 4, The Washington Post reported on a leaked poll conducted for the Council of State Chambers of Commerce, which shows that the vast majority of business executives who were questioned said they support raising the minimum wage. The poll, conducted by Republican pollster Frank Luntz, found that "80 percent of respondents said they supported raising their state's minimum wage, while only eight percent opposed it." An advocate quoted in the Post's piece noted that other polls have found similar results to the findings uncovered by the Center for Media and Democracy.The advocacy organization Small Business Majority found that 60 percent of small-business owners supported raising the minimum wage to at least $12 per hour, and the American Sustainable Business Council also found that a majority of businesses support raising the minimum wage. Right-wing media have repeatedly pushed the myth that businesses are opposed to raising the minimum wage while spreading debunked claims that raising the minimum wage leads to job losses. In one instance, Fox Business host Stuart Varney claimed that a minimum wage increase in Seattle had cost the area 1,000 jobs in food services in the month after the increase went into effect, when in reality 1,800 jobs had been created since the start of the year, regardless of the wage change. But economists have also repeatedly debunked the claim that raising the minimum wage would kill jobs. Researchers at Cornell University found that raising the regular and tipped minimum wages for workers in the restaurant and hospitality industries has "not had large or reliable effects" on the number of people working in the industry and concluded that business groups opposed to wage increases should just embrace "reasonable increases." Recent strong job data out of Washington state, where the cities of Seattle and SeaTac are in the process of phasing in the highest municipal minimum wages in the country, undermined right-wing media claims that raising the minimum wage kills jobs."