To Help Small Businesses, Help Immigrants

*Teresa Tritch breaks-down the numbers behind the immigration-hurts-small-business idea. Tritch found in her research that 20 percent of the U.S. workforce is employed by small businesses; that the vast majority of self-identified small businesses have only one employee; that more immigrants start small businesses than U.S. citizens; and that immigrants are just as likely to hire workers than non-immigrants. VL

By Teresa Tritch, The New York Times

Politicians, especially those on the right, often talk about their devotion to “small business” when arguing against higher wages for workers and higher taxes for the rich.

They do so even though government research has shown that most small businesses do not have employees and very few small business owners make enough to be affected by high-end tax increases.

A new study by the Pew Research Center presents an even fuller picture. The study, which used survey data only recently made available by the Census Bureau, looked at self-employed individuals, defined as those who work for profits or fees in their own businesses, including sole proprietors, partners or incorporated business owners.

The study found that 14.6 million people, about 10 percent of the American workforce, say they are self-employed. Of them, 76 percent do not have any employees.

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