By Michael Aron
NJTV News, December 11, 2018
Earth Friendly Products in Parsippany makes environmentally sound cleaning products like ECOS laundry detergent. Gov. Phil Murphy visited Tuesday because the company pays its workers a $17 minimum wage.
Murphy is negotiating a minimum wage bill with the Legislature. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin has a bill that would phase in a $15 minimum wage by 2024. It would also exclude farmworkers, seasonal workers, teenagers under 18 and businesses under 10 employees. Those categories would be on a slower path to $15 in 2029.
Murphy said Friday that latter position sticks in his throat. ...
Earth Friendly Products is a family business with 350 employees and four locations. Its CEO, the daughter of its founder, said a 2014 decision to go to a $17 minimum wage had paid dividends.
“We saw increased productivity when we raised our wage. We saw people really coming to work more often. We saw a reduction in time off,” president and CEO Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks said. ...
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