5月17日VOA聽力：貿易查詢拜訪表現將來12個月內美國小型企業會面對雇用難逆境
This factory, these stores are the kinds of smallbusinesses that account for a significant part ofAmerica's economic activity.
Confidence by the owners of these stores andfactories is down as election year anxiety rises,according to a Bank of America's survey.
“It is really important because small-business ownerswalk a very fine line around profitability and if you think about what some of the biggestexpenses can be for a small-business owner, it can be taxes, it can be the minimum wage canhave a huge impact, and health care costs.
So when you think about those three items, it could actually make or break a business.”
The call by both the leading Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to increase theminimum wage is especially worrying for small businesses, which are defined as companieshaving 100 employees or less.
Steve Hong, who owns a garment factory in Manhattan, opposes the city's mandate to raisethe minimum wage to 15 an hour by the end of 2018.
“I tried to give my workers a little bit of a raise every single year and most of my workersaverage about between 11 and 13 and that's probably, in this industry, one of the higher ones.
But now with the new law of 15 an hour minimum, you're raising the minimum from 8.75 to 15in three years, which is 80 percent.
I don't know how to sustain that. ”
Nearly three-quarters of small-business owners also worry about rising health care costs.
In fact, the survey shows 22 percent are postponing hiring, citing uncertainty regarding theelection and health care policy.
Chief Economist Tara Sinclair of the employment search engine indeed.com says radicallydifferent policies from the left and right create challenges for business.
“I do think that employers are really struggling to get a sense of how to make their hiring plansfor the long term in the current political environment because they are hearing very differentpotential economic policies and that makes it more challenging than any specific policy.
It's not knowing what the policy will be.”
And with some small businesses still struggling to recovering from the recession, the stakes forthe 26th presidential election loom a specially large.
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