By
Mary Bottari in PR Watch
Yet, the fact that these top
executives have empathy for their workers is a major take away from a
closed-door webinar about a new poll taken by LuntzGlobal, the
polling firm of prominent GOP pollster Frank Luntz.
The polled executives want to raise
the wage, expand paid sick and maternity leave, and support predictive
scheduling. Their desire to "keep health care costs low for American
families" far outstrips their opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
CMD was provided with a copy of the
poll which was shared with business lobbyists, who were instructed on how
to manipulate the public debate over those policies rather than
implement the views of the business executives who were polled.
Below are
some of the surprising highlights of the full poll, which you can access
here. New materials about this are available here.
Background
The poll was commissioned by Council of State Chambers (COSC)
is a little-known association that helps the top lobbyists for state chambers
of commerce get on message about the national political agenda of the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, one of the largest and most influencial lobbying forces in
America.
According to its website COSC
"provides a forum for exchanging professional experiences, information and
best practices, and insight and ideas to chamber executives." It works
closely with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is a member along with most
state chambers.
LuntzGlobal is a prominent GOP polling and communications firm headed by Frank Luntz. Their website states: "Our analysis of the results will help you learn exactly what your target audience wants and needs to hear."David Merritt is the Managing Director for LuntzGlobal. Merritt previously worked for Newt Gingrich and for John McCain in 2008.
There is no force in America that has
spent more time and effort to keep wages low than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
and the state chambers that aggressively lobby against increasing the minimum
wage. The U.S. Chamber is a $165 million dollar lobby shop (2013 990), which
raised and spent $35 million in the 2014 election cycle, according to Open Secrets.
The Chamber has lobbied on Capitol Hill
and in statehouses across the country to block, federal, state and local wage
hikes. It has been active in states like
Wisconsin to
preempt local minimum wages ordinances. It has lobbied against paid sick days
in many states,including recently
in New Jersey. At the federal level, the Chamber has
lobbied against the "Minimum Wage Fairness
Act," which gradually raises wages to $10.10.
The U.S. Chamber objects to minimum wage
hikes because being "involuntarily compelled to act as agents of the
federal government in executing and bearing the direct costs of a socio-economic
policy" "is obviously unfair," says the Chamber's
chief economist who suggests "a more correct
approach" gave rise to the Earned Income Credit (EIC).
Who Was Polled?
For COSC, LuntzGlobal interviewed 1,000
registered voters and "C-level executives" (CEOs, COOs or CFOs) who
were members of their local chamber (46%), state chamber (28%), or the U.S.
Chamber (16%).
73% were CEOs or owners. 49% of the
firms were between $50 million-$500 million in revenue. 41% had 100-499
employees.19% had 1,000 or more employees.
Interestingly, while CEOs object to
"mandates" in general, only 53% thought there were "too
many" or "far too many" mandates as opposed to 46% who thought
there were "just enough" or "not enough."
Even more significantly when CEOs were
asked about specific mandates they expressed broad support for raising the
wage, paid sick days, maternity and paternity leave, and other progressive
policies.
Minimum Wage
CEOs support raising the state
minimum wage 80% to 8%.
When asked which alternative to raising
the minimum wage they preferred, a slight majority preferred the earned income
tax credit as an alternative to other options presented.
However, when a minimum wage hike was
put head-to-head against the earned income tax credit, raising the wage won
by a solid margin 54%-46%.
When asked during the webinar about
these surprising results, Merritt says: "it is undeniable that they
support an increase" in the minimum wage. "My guess is that they are
looking a raising it as a priority." "If you are fighting a minimum
wage increase, you are fighting an uphill battle." "Most Americans
support it, most Republicans support it."
So how does a Chamber of Commerce spin
this information in a way that works? "A winning argument is to put it up
against other issues where it drops as a priority," advises Merritt.
"In isolation it is definitely a winner."
Paid Sick Time
CEOs support paid sick time 73% to 16%.
When asked about "more time off to take care of sick children or relatives"
CEOs support it 83%
to 5%.
Words That Work
The pollsters borrowed "words that
work" from the National Partnership for Women and Families, a non-profit
public interest organization that advocates for health care and workplace
fairness.
This language was tested against Chamber language and Luntz language
on the topic of paid sick days.
The National Partnership for Women and
Families has "perfect, perfect language" on paid sick days, said
Luntz pollster David Merritt.
Maternity/Paternity
Leave
CEOs support "increasing
maternity leave" 72% to 9% and
supported "mandating
paternity leave" by 82% to 7%.
Predictive
Scheduling
On predictive scheduling, CEOs
support it 78% to 11%.
"Predictive scheduling measures
would limit employers ability to use on call scheduling for their employees
requiring them to give sufficient advanced notice to their employees about when
they will and will not be working."
Abusive "on-call" scheduling
practices at fast food restaurants and chain stores that do not allow employees
to plan for the care of their children have recently come to public attention,
prompting San Francisco to pass one of the nation's first ordinances to address
the problem in 2015. Already industry is talking about preempting such
ordinances in certain states.
Preemption
State Chambers along with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have been pushing
preemption of living wage, minimum wage, prevailing wage and other progressive
policies promulgated by localities for some time, see the Center for
Media and Democracy's 2016 report. Multistate Associates has been supportive state
efforts to preempt them.
But when CEOs were asked: "All of
these issues may be important but when it comes to where an elected official
stands, which issue is the MOST important to you?"
"State preemption of
local mandates" was at the bottom of the list at 10%.
Of those who said "state preemption
of local mandates are most important" only 18%,
the smallest number, were worried about "ensuring local governments do not
overly burden businesses when it comes to wages and benefits."
Health Care
"Keeping health care costs low for
American families" was a key concern for CEOs. Significantly, it far
outstripped "replacing ACA" or "making health care affordable
for small businesses" as a priority.
Empathy
A top take-away for the pollsters? CEOs
have empathy for their workers and society as a whole.
Based on the directives to state chamber
lobbyists in the webinar, COSC is eager to help chambers of commerce
overcome that empathy and continue to oppose legal policies strongly supported
by both the American people and the business executives the chambers tell
the press and public that they represent.
© 2015 Center for Media and Democracy
Mary Bottari is
the Director of the Center for Media and Democracy's Real Economy Project and
editor of their www.BanksterUSA.org site. Nick Surgey, Lisa Graves and Kim Haddow contributed to
this article.
