NEW YORK CITY-A coalition of business owners, non-profits and city chambers of commerce met on the steps of City Hall yesterday to voice their dissatisfaction with proposed living wage mandates. The bill that would implement the mandates calls for wages of at least $10 an hour on jobs that receive significant amounts of public money. Yesterday’s gathering came in advance of today’s City Council hearing on the matter.

“In city after city, wherever wage mandates are tried, the very people who are supposed to benefit are hurt the most,” Manhattan Chamber of Commerce president Nancy Ploeger said. She went on to outline the three main points of contention: the additional costs, the belief that it will make New York noncompetitive in areas such as development and building, and the creation of vast amounts of red tape to monitor compliance.

Jack Friedman, executive VP of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, tells GlobeSt.com that the measure would all but kill development, which has already been hit hard in the region. “I can’t imagine Willets Point going forward if the living wage mandate goes forward,” Friedman says. “Because what retailer in their right mind is going to agree to sign leases in a place where they’re going to have to pay their employees 50% more than the people down the block?”