EDITORIAL: Maximum damage to job creation

If the Nevada Legislature wants to eliminate jobs and opportunity, then it should pass Senate Bill 193.

If lawmakers want to hurt small businesses — the companies they claim to champion — they should pass SB193.

We hope they don’t. Nevada’s recovering economy is growing slowly, but its 7.1 percent jobless rate is the highest of the 50 states. SB193 would hurt the state’s job creators and its least skilled workers by increasing Nevada’s minimum wage to $9 per hour.

The bill, which passed the Senate on party lines, with majority Republicans in favor, originally was written to change the state’s unique overtime law. It triggers overtime pay when an employee works more than eight hours within a 24-hour period. SB193 would change the law to trigger overtime pay when an employee logs more than 40 hours in a week. That provision would give businesses more scheduling flexibility.

But the Senate included a minimum wage increase in the legislation. The state’s current minimum wage is $7.25 for workers who are offered health insurance and $8.25 for those who aren’t offered coverage. A lot of small businesses can’t afford to give their workers pay raises. That means lost jobs. A higher minimum wage prices unskilled workers — especially teenagers — out of the labor market, denying them critical entry-level opportunities that pave the way for better, higher-paying jobs.

SB193 is scheduled to be heard today by the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee. The overtime provision is good policy. The minimum wage increase is not. If lawmakers cannot remove the minimum wage increase from SB193, they should reject it.