Negative Fallout From Increased Wage Laws

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I'm sure not too many folks have much sympathy for businesses that suffer due to new minimum wage laws. I'm currently a resident of New Mexico. Chile farming isn't very big news other places but it's an important industry where I live. Anyway I was hearing some reports on local news stating how the chile farming industry in New Mexico is being hurt by an increase in the minimum wage. The industry is being threatened by foreign competition and the increase in the minimum wage adds to the threat as in the industry could die here. Here's a link to The New Mexico Chile Association! web page:

The New Mexico Chile Association


Challenges our industry faces:


· Cheap foreign industry that is taking our market share and putting companies out of business.

· Our industry lacks available automation because we are not a huge industry and have not attracted attention and money from machinery companies. We need automation to allow us to compete with foreign competition that has very low labor costs and little regulation.

· Burdensome and poorly thought out local and statewide minimum wage laws.

· Immigration policies that make it difficult to staff our companies cost effectively.

· Onerous labor laws and other regulations that increase our costs.

· Proposed grading laws that will cause our costs to increase.

· Additional free trade agreements that will add to the influx of cheap foreign product.

· Over the past decade, the number of acres of chile grown in New Mexico has been reduced by half.

· If our industry does not act aggressively, our industry will be decimated and little of it will remain in five years.