In a letter to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher requested that independent booksellers be included in any discussions regarding how the minimum wage is increased, Bookselling This Week reported. Last month the governor said he wants to increase the state's minimum wage to $15 from $8.75.
Teicher wrote that although indies do not oppose increasing the minimum wage, ABA members in New York state "want to work with your office to help craft a solution that raises wages based upon sound economic principles.... If the state raises the minimum wage without including New York's independent bookstore owners in important policy discussions, they risk harming the people they are seeking to help by forcing independent businesses, which work on very small margins, to cut benefits or staff hours--or worse, to go out of business."
