By Scott Kraus
The Morning Call, Sept 7, 2016
ALLENTOWN — Political debates over the minimum wage are nothing new. Gov. Tom Wolf has pushed recently for an increase, tweaking resistant Republican state lawmakers ... What is unusual is to have business leaders arguing publicly to hike the minimum wage, as the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce's Michelle Griffin Young did Tuesday before a meeting of the House Democratic Policy Committee in Allentown. ...
"Our membership agrees $7.25 is not a livable minimum wage," said Griffin Young, the Chamber's executive vice president for government and external affairs. "They believe a livable minimum wage in the Lehigh Valley would be $9.25." ...
Local chambers typically reflect the position of the statewide business organization — the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry — which opposes any increase in the federal minimum wage of $7.25. ...
Some other local chambers publicly support minimum wage increases, said Bob Keener, with the advocacy group Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. While he knew of none in Pennsylvania, he noted that the Greater New York City Chamber favors an increase. ...
The Lehigh Valley Chamber might be less of an outlier than it appears.
The Washington Post reported in April that a leaked survey of 1,000 business executives, commissioned by a umbrella group that represents state chambers of commerce, found 80 percent of those surveyed supported an increase in their state's minimum wage. ...
Green Heron Tools of New Tripoli, which makes farming and garden equipment designed for women, is one of them. The company doesn't yet have any employees but if it grows enough to require some, it plans to pay more than the minimum wage, co-owner Elizabeth Brensinger said.
She joined more than three dozen other Pennsylvania businesses signing on in support of a [federal] minimum wage hike with the national interest group Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.
"It's important to create livable wages in this country," she said. "We are very much about creating and contributing to an environment that is sustainable in every way. Part of sustainability is creating jobs that have wages that someone can use to sustain their livelihood." ...
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