Skip to main content

By Don Lee
Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2015

FOR THE RECORD: 9:17 a.m., June 2: An earlier photo caption with this story identified hardware store owner Gina Schaefer as an advocate of a higher minimum wage. While she supports raising the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020, she has taken no position on a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

Gina Schaefer prides herself in taking care of workers. The owner of 10 Ace Hardware stores in the Washington, D.C., area pays her 215 employees at least $10.50 an hour. That's a buck more than the legal minimum in the capital city and much more than suburbs in Maryland and Virginia. ...

She's learned from experience that paying more can boost the bottom line by leading to a happier, more productive workforce. Before Schaefer voluntarily bumped up the starting wage by $2 an hour in 2011, she was replacing about 80% of her employees every year. That's since dropped in half, sharply cutting her training costs and boosting productivity. ...

Read more