The Connecticut Business and Industry Association and BlumShapiro released Friday their annual survey of businesses in Connecticut, showing state taxes and regulations are the biggest roadblocks to business growth and expansion. The three biggest challenges to growth cited by the businesses surveyed were costs associated with state regulations, taxes and “unpredictability surrounding legislative decision making.”
Connecticut businesses drop unemployment appeals or fail to show up for hearings 40 percent of the time, according to state figures, driving the low success rate for employer appeals found in a recent association report. Strategic Services on Unemployment & Workers' Compensation, a nationwide association of employers, recently reported that Connecticut employers have one of the lowest success rates in the country. Data provided by Chief Appeals Officer Ralph Dorsey shows that employers frequently decide not to follow through on their appeals, contributing to their low success rate.
A new study from the Employment Policies Institute shows that Connecticut’s 2012 paid sick leave law resulted in reduced benefits and less hours for young and low-wage workers. The study, conducted by Dr. Thomas Ahn of the University of Kentucky, focused on Connecticut because it was the first state to mandate paid sick leave and therefore had the most measurable data. According to Ahn’s research one-third of surveyed businesses reduced other employee benefits to compensate for costs due to the law. One fifth of the businesses either raised prices or reduced staffing levels.
Connecticut is one of the epicenters of the $70 million campaign to pressure states and municipalities to raise the minimum wage to $15, despite the damaging effects that a steep minimum wage increase would have on workers. The money for the “Fight for $15” campaign comes from the dues of members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which in Connecticut represents many state employees, as well as health care and food service workers. A state board, the Connecticut Low Wage Employer Advisory Board, whose membership includes an SEIU director, will hold a hearing in Bridgeport next week on whether or not the state should raise its minimum wage.
Hartford area employment has only increased by 1.1 percent in the past 25 years, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, leaving Connecticut’s capitol region last in the nation. The report focused on the 51 metropolitan areas with a population of at least one million people and tracked data from March of 1991 to March of 2016. Connecticut’s population saw a 10 percent increase during the same period.
Billionaire and hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones has left Connecticut and moved to Florida according to a report in Bloomberg News. Jones, the head of Tudor Investment Corp., opened an office in Palm Beach, Florida, and registered to vote there in November 2015. Jones’ 2014 income as a hedge fund manager was listed as $600 million by CNN Money, which would make his annual income tax about $30 million per year. The state of Florida has no income tax.