Small businesses in Pennsylvania are still struggling to hire and retain a ready workforce, persistent challenges in the wake of the pandemic.

While small businesses employ nearly half (46.4%) of the private workforce in the United States, many are struggling to hire and retain a ready workforce. One viable solution to their persistent workforce challenges is the passing of Clean Slate policies, which seal and expunge certain criminal records and allow justice-impacted individuals to seek employment opportunities and entrepreneurship. Individual state analyses of small business responses in Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas found widespread support for Clean Slate policies at the state and federal level.

Small business owners nationwide are doing all they can to strengthen their businesses and put the Great Recession’s effects behind them. Now more than ever, it’s critical they have the help of smart employment laws allowing them to attract and retain the best talent. National scientific opinion polling shows the vast majority of small business owners believe we’re long overdue for federal and state policies protecting all workers from discrimination, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Small businesses account for a significant share of Pennsylvania’s economy. For every one large business in Pennsylvania, there are 246 small businesses diligently working to reenergize the state’s economy: Small firms make up 98.3% of the state’s employers. These entrepreneurs are doing everything they can to hire, grow and move their businesses and the state’s economy forward. As part of these efforts, recent scientific opinion polling shows that Pennsylvania’s entrepreneurs want pragmatic, innovative policies that help guide them into a competitive, modern clean energy economy. 

Small business owners in Pennsylvania strongly believe the country needs to move toward clean energy and that new energy policies will transform the economy and help them create new jobs. They support comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation currently being discussed in the US Senate. Support for a climate and energy bill from Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey would be a winner with small business owners back home. A Public Policy Polling survey of 427 small business owners in Pennsylvania, taken between July 2nd and 6th, found that:

Small Business Majority and Main Street Alliance commissioned opinion surveys of small business owners in 7 states across the country to learn their attitudes toward the clean energy bill being debated in Washington.

The poll showed that among small businesses, there is strong support for the clean energy and climate legislation currently being debated; small businesses believe that moving the country to clean energy is a smart way to restart the economy and help small businesses create jobs. A majority of those polled want their business to be part of a new clean energy economy.