By Ben Werschkul
Yahoo Finance, June 30, 2020
Twenty-one states had minimum wage increases or cost of living adjustments at the beginning of 2020. And now, halfway into 2020, more are set to continue pushing the nation’s average minimum wage upwards even as the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25. ...
"We are just working our way up to what's truly a fair wage in our country," says Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, president and CEO ECOS, who also works with Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a group that advocates for higher rates.
ECOS, which manufactures environmentally friendly cleaning products, has a factory in Addison, Ill., one of the states set to see a wage increase this week. ECOS already starts employees at $17 an hour and argues it’s in the interest of other businesses to embrace the wage increase.
"There's so many costs that hit the bottom lines of businesses that experience high turnover and people that are paying low wages have a lot of high turnover,” Vlahakis-Hanks says, noting that the costs can hit in places from recruiting to productivity to low morale. ...
“Boosting the minimum wage will help businesses and communities in dealing with the pandemic and moving toward shared recovery,” says Holly Sklar of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. ...
WATCH INTERVIEW WITH ECOS CEO Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks
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