By Ava White
Alaska Public Media, September 5, 2024

A ballot measure that would raise Alaska’s minimum wage and allow workers to earn paid sick leave received support Thursday from a coalition of business owners. Members of Alaska Business for Better Jobs think the measure would positively impact Alaska businesses. ...

Derrick Green owns Waffles and Whatnot, a restaurant in east Anchorage. He has seven employees, who are already paid more than $15 an hour and accrue sick leave. ... Green said offering higher pay and paid time off makes workers happy, and when workers...

Merriam-Webster.com, August 27, 2024

buying power
: the amount of money that a person or group has available to spend : purchasing power ...

Examples of buying power in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web

One point that tends to get lost in the minimum wage debate is the connection between a higher wage and stronger consumer buying power, according to Holly Sklar, CEO of advocacy group Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.—Lorie Konish, CNBC, 16 Aug. 2024 ...

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buying%20power 

Merriam-Webster.com, August 23, 2024

Examples of debate in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web

Noun
As of now, an official debate has yet to be scheduled.
—Anna Gordon, TIME, 16 Aug. 2024

One point that tends to get lost in the minimum wage debate is the connection between a higher wage and stronger consumer buying power, according to Holly Sklar, CEO of advocacy group Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.
—Lorie Konish, CNBC, 16 Aug. 2024

https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/debate

By Kacen Bayless
Kansas City Star, August 22, 2024. Also Yahoo News

While other business owners have complained about finding people who want to work, Mike Schroeder says he has not had that problem. Schroeder co-owns Oddly Correct, a 20-employee coffee shop along Troost Avenue. He pays his employees $19 an hour or more — well above the state’s minimum wage of $12.30 an hour.

“If we think that every person actually has value, then we need to, at the very least, provide people who are working a full time job with the means to...

By Samantha Boring
KCTV5, Aug. 22, 2024

In 75 days, Missouri voters will decide if the minimum wage should increase and if employers should offer sick pay. It’s a proposal many business owners in the Kansas City metro are in favor of ...

A petition shows over 450 signatures supporting this measure, many of those signers are Kansas City business owners. KCTV5 spoke with some Thursday about backing this measure.

Many businesses already pay their employees over the current minimum wage.

“I’ve always believed in paying people what they are worth,” said City Market Coffee...

By Lorie Konish
CNBC, Aug 16, 2024. Also NBC New York, NBC Chicago, NBC Miami, NBC Los Angeles, NBC San Diego, NBC Connecticut, more

The federal minimum wage recently marked a new anniversary. ... The federal minimum wage has now been stuck at $7.25 per hour for 15 years....

Many states have enacted minimum hourly pay rates that are higher than the federal minimum wage. Yet 20 states have wages that are no higher than the federal level, according to Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. They include Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky...

By Michael Calhoun
KMOX St. Louis, August 14, 2024

...Three major ballot initiatives get final approval from the Missouri Secretary of State to appear before voters on November 5th. ... [Including] boosting the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. "It makes sense on so many levels." Businessman Joe Edwards says he's already paying his workers at that level and offering paid sick leave.

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Also 

KWOS Radio (Jefferson City, MO), August 14, 2024. Also KSSZ-FM (Columbia, MO)

You’ll be casting ballots in November in Missouri on three initiative petitions: one regarding abortion, one raising the minimum wage and one legalizing sports wagering. ...

You’ll also be voting on a measure to raise Missouri’s minimum wage and allow workers to earn paid sick time. It’s being pushed by the group Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, which says raising the minimum wage and paid sick days are good for business and for the economy. ... Supporters include Columbia’s Leigh Lockhart, who...

By Jonathan Shorman
Kansas City Star, August 13, 2024. Also Yahoo News.

Missouri voters will decide in November whether to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and guarantee paid sick leave for workers. ... The measure will be called Proposition A on the Nov. 5 ballot. ...

“I supported the 2018 minimum wage ballot initiative and since then we have doubled our staff, despite the pandemic,” said Andy Montee, owner of Mokaska Coffee in St. Joseph and a member of Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, a group backing the proposal. “Thanks...

By Matthew Sanders, Gabrielle Teiner, Jazsmin Halliburton, Nia Hinson
ABC 17-KMIX TV, Columbia, MO, August 13, 2024

The Missouri Secretary of State's Office said Tuesday ... that the abortion question would be on the November ballot. Questions to raise the minimum wage and guarantee sick leave and to legalize sports gambling in Missouri will also be on the ballot. ...

Joe Chevalier, owner of the Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia and supporter of the minimum wage petition, said he thinks its important to protect Missouri's workforce and thinks the measure would help.

"I've always been...

By Joe McLean, Missouri State Capitol Bureau Chief, Gray Television
KY3 Springfield (MO), July 29, 2024. Also KMOV 4 St. Louis, KCTV 5 (Kansas City), KFVS 12 (Cape Girardeau, MO), WGEM (Quincy, IL)

As the annual cost of living rises, Missourians are on track to vote in November on raising the state’s minimum wage from its current $12.30 an hour. If passed, the measure would increase the hourly minimum to $13.75 starting in January 2025, and then to $15 in January 2026. ... The proposal would also require employers to provide [paid leave]. ...

Some...

By Paolo Confino
Fortune, July 24, 2024. Also Yahoo Finance, AOL News, MSN

The federal minimum wage has not risen from $7.25 for 15 years. That run extends the longest such streak since the federal minimum wage was implemented in 1938.

However, because of inflation and changes in the cost-of-living, the federal minimum wage is worth far less now than at any point since 1949. A full time employee working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year would earn a total $15,080 a year, before taxes. And that assumes they have paid sick days...

By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams, July 24, 2024

Former U.S. President Barack Obama had been in office for just over six months when the federal minimum wage was raised to a paltry $7.25 an hour—where it remains today, 15 years later. ...

Some lawmakers at the federal level have pushed, without success, for legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage. Last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) introduced a bill that would incrementally hike the national wage floor to $17 an hour by 2028 and index it to median wages...

North Texas e-News, July 21, 2024
From Business for a Fair Minimum Wage release

July 24 will mark fifteen years since the last federal minimum wage increase in 2009. This is the longest period by far without a raise since the minimum wage was enacted in 1938. The $7.25 federal minimum wage amounts to just $15,080 a year for full-time workers. 

The federal minimum wage peaked in purchasing power in 1968, when the minimum wage was worth $14.70 in today’s dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator. Thirty states now...

By Caroline Hogan
KSHB 41 TV, May 14, 2024

Mike Schroeder loves a black cup of coffee in the morning, but he may love his employees more. The owner of Oddly Correct, a coffee shop on Troost Avenue, pays his employees $19 an hour. That's well above the minimum wage in Missouri.

"The people who are here are the ones that are going to make things happen," Schroeder said. "So if they're not feeling stable or invested, the business isn't gonna go anywhere."

Schroeder actively supports the initiative in Missouri to increase the minimum wage...