Name : Agita Intan Mahira

Class/NIM : L/190412630007

Small Businesses Struggle as Inflation Persists

The United States Department of Commerce reported last month that large companies
were highly profitable in 2021. But a recent survey by Goldman Sachs found that 80% of small
business owners said their business had suffered over the past six months due to record high
inflation. The pandemic and war in Ukraine are also factors driving the cost increase. Small
business owners say they are struggling to compete with big companies. If inflation continues
long-term, it will be difficult to sustain it.
After two years of facing the challenges of the pandemic and making up for the current
labour shortage, we have an increased cost to compete for small businesses across the country.
And when it comes to inflation, small entrepreneurs have tried to combat it in various ways.
One thing they do is they know that their workers need to be paid more money to deal with
rising prices when they are at home. About 60% of these small businesses say when they offer
higher wages or try to attract higher-paid workers, they pass the increase on to consumers. So
small entrepreneurs feel it and pass it on to consumers.
Rising energy costs are one of its biggest challenges. make employees of small
entrepreneurs have to travel for work. one of the things he's trying to do is pass out gas cards
to his employees so that gas costs don't take away the employees' paychecks. And then when
that doesn't work, small employers change their budgets, raise prices for services and give their
workers pay raises to help tackle the overall challenge of rising gas prices and other costs. But
there are other issues that small businesses can't deal with here. Of course, paying workers
more is a great thing, but when it comes to these small businesses, another real challenge is the
benefits that large companies can offer, even if they make only a slight increase in wages.
To address this issue, there are many factors at play here with supply chain issues with
the war in Ukraine, so there are a lot of different things to deal with. Wages are one thing we
see increases. Small businesses try to offer other perks, as one small business owner put it, gas
cards to try and get workers in the door. More than 85% said they wanted the federal
government to do more to help equalize them and help them compete. They are only asking for
help to create a playing field for small entrepreneurs with these big companies. So one of the
things small entrepreneurs are asking is for Congress to do more. Congress are a lot of different
players in the game there. Looking at the many proposals in terms of benefits to parenting,
making child care more affordable, making healthcare more affordable, and having health care
options, those are things that will help some of these small businesses compete. . In addition,
the government is being asked to help stop bottlenecks in the supply chain of staples and energy
by working together to address some of the other challenges that are helping to drive inflation,
for example by lowering or partially fixing the costs of the staples sector and rising energy
costs.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ct9cpxv-o