“Inflation is everywhere, and firms on Main Street, where most of us spend our money, are raising prices,” writes William Dunkelberg, Chief Economist for the National Federation of Independent Business in a new article for Forbes. “Earlier this year (March and May), 71 percent of small businesses reported raising their average selling prices, a tie with July 1974, the record high. Nearly 20 percent raised prices by 10 percent or more! That’s inflation!”

Inflation remains the number one problem for small businesses as they’re forced to pass these costs onto consumers.

Read the full op-ed here.

Small businesses have struggled through President Biden’s cruel economy with inflation, a worker shortage, and now more tax hikes and a recession. 

READ: Small Biz Stuck in Cruel Biden Economy as They Brace for Recession

KEY EXCERPTS:

Main Street businesses are being forced to raise prices to keep up with inflation, which, in turn, gets passed onto American consumers.

• Record high labor costs means “costs are passed on through higher prices (or other adverse changes in operations) to customers (consumers and other businesses).”

• “NFIB’s monthly survey found that inflation remains the number one problem for small businesses. Thirty percent reported that it was their single most important problem in September.”

READ: President Biden’s Cruel Economy is No Joke

Small businesses have two options to mitigate inflationary costs in President Biden’s cruel economy, neither of which are sustainable.

• “One, widely used today, is to raise selling prices.”

• “The other is called “shrinkflation,” reducing the quantities contained in a package or product rather than raising its price.”
  • “When there are fewer chips in the bag or less cereal in the box, inflation is hidden because even though the price of the package is unchanged, there is less in it.”

• “According to NFIB’s July 2022 Inflation survey, 17 percent reported reducing the quantities of materials or goods used to produce final products and 23 percent reported switching to lower cost materials or goods to produce final products.”

Small businesses are not to blame for rising prices, as they’re only doing what they must to stay afloat in the cruel economy created by Democrats.

• “Small firms don’t cause inflation, they simply respond to the changes in input costs created by economic policies in the best way they can figure out.”

• “Inflation raises their (and your) nominal income, but reduces how much it can buy. To date, prices have risen faster than wages, a hidden tax.”

KEY BACKGROUND:

A year and a half into the Biden Administration, America is still facing a labor shortage.

• Main street businesses face a record labor shortage with over 10 million job openings for over a year.

• Over half of business owners are still struggling to fill job openings after President Biden discouraged work. Of those hiring, 89 percent of small businesses reported few or no applicants for positions they were trying to fill.

Small businesses have struggled through President Biden’s cruel economy with inflation, a worker shortage, and now more tax hikes and a recession.

• Thirty percent of business owners reported inflation as the single biggest challenge in operating their business.

• “President Biden should acknowledge he’s got a worker crisis. He’s not talked about it once. There are no policies for it. We can help him with that. We think there’s some smart things you could do to incentivize people to reconnect to work, versus the Biden policies that do the opposite.” – Ways and Means Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX)
  

Republicans’ Commitment to America Means a Stronger Economy

• Republicans are committed to creating a stronger economy for American workers through pro-growth tax and deregulatory policies.

READ: Biden Admin’s War on Work Targets America’s Gig Economy

READ: Small Biz Owner Says TCJA Boosted Jobs & Paychecks: “No Worse Thing to Do Than Raise Taxes”

Read the full op-ed here.