The St. John’s Board of Trade is calling on the provincial government to maintain its commitment to ensure that any increase in minimum wage is linked to the federal consumer price index.

Acting CEO Rhonda Tulk-Lane says prosperity for all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians is a complex issue, with many influences.

The Board of Trade says if minimum wage were to increase to $15 an hour, the labour costs for a small, rural business employing 15 people would rise by more than $100,000.

Tulk-Lane says a small business would not be able to absorb those costs without some kind of impact. She says small employers have to figure out how to deal with that kind of expense, either through raising the cost of goods and services, making cuts, or worse, job losses, which would affect the very people wage increases are intended to help.

Alyse Stewart is with 15 and Fairness, a group calling for $15 an hour minimum wage. She says government should be able to provide assistance to small businesses that need help meeting the cost.

There should be measures in place to help lift up minimum wage workers out of a “precarious poverty position” according to Stewart, and to help small business as well.