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By Matt Murphy
State House News Service, May 8, 2018

BOSTON - There will be votes taken this year on a $15-an-hour minimum wage and paid family and medical leave for workers. The only question, advocates assured on Tuesday, is whether legislators vote this spring, or voters make the decision in the fall.

Hundreds of union workers, community organizers and faith-based leaders swarmed the Statehouse Tuesday to make their voices and presence felt by lawmakers. Raise Up Massachusetts, the coalition behind two ballot questions to achieve both policy goals, organized the raucous rally, which echoed through the building, to demand action from lawmakers before it has to turn in a second round of signatures in early July to secure a spot on the ballot. ....

Megan Driscoll, the CEO of PharmaLogics Recruiting in Quincy, spoke on behalf of the nearly 300 business leaders who have signed on in support of [a $15 minimum wage] ... Driscoll said her company invested in its workers to raise their pay to a base of $23 an hour and saw a 3 percent increase in their profit margin the same year. She has also been able to grow her company from 46 employees to more than 90.

While she said she knows not every business can afford to pay workers what she does, she said $11 an hour is not enough to live in Massachusetts.

“When employees are valued they know and so do your customers,” she said. ...

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