By Dana Gerber
Boston Globe, September 26, 2023
On Tuesday, the state’s Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development held hearings for bills in both chambers that would gradually raise the Massachusetts minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2027 and subsequently boost it in lockstep with inflation. The bills — presented by Representatives Tram T. Nguyen and Daniel M. Donahue in the House and Senator Jason M. Lewis in the Senate — come after the last in the series of pay hikes secured as part of the 2018 “grand bargain” legislation lifted the minimum wage to $15 at the beginning of this year. Several business owners expressed their support for the bills, citing improvements in employee retention and consumer spending that come with a higher wage floor. ...