FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 26, 2014
CONTACT: Bob Keener, 617-610-6766, bob@businessforafairminimumwage.org
BOSTON, MA – Business owners and executives from Business for a Fair Minimum Wage will be at the State House as Governor Patrick signs the bill giving Massachusetts the nation’s highest state minimum wage. The new law will raise the minimum wage gradually from $8 to $11 by January 2017.
"This is a great day for Massachusetts businesses that advocated raising the minimum wage as a much needed boost for our economy," said Holly Sklar, Director of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. “Workers are also customers. A higher minimum wage will increase sales at local businesses and reduce the strain on our social safety net and our communities caused by inadequate wages.”
Glynn Lloyd, CEO of City Fresh Foods in Boston said, “Paying above the unlivable minimum wage has lifted our business, and raising the minimum wage will strengthen our economy and lift Massachusetts. We started out in 1994 in Roxbury as a small take-out lunch operation and have grown into a nationally recognized provider of affordable, healthy meals to childcare centers, schools, and rehabilitation and eldercare programs throughout Eastern Massachusetts. Preparing and delivering millions of high-quality meals a year wouldn’t be possible without our 100 dedicated employees, most of them from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.”
“It’s remarkable to me that we’ve come all the way to 2014 with a minimum wage that belongs in the last century,” said John Abrams, President and CEO of South Mountain Company, a design and construction firm in West Tisbury. “We believe that the minimum wage must be a living wage that supports and encourages good work, good families, good lives, and a prosperous economy. It just makes sense, plain and simple.”
More than 100 business owners, executives and business organizations across the state have signed the Massachusetts Business for a Fair Minimum Wage Statement, which called for increasing the minimum wage to $11. Signers include Costco, the Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts, City Fresh Foods, Hollister Staffing, Porter Square Books, South Mountain Company, The Longfellow Clubs, Cambridge Naturals, Fire & Ice Restaurant, TAGS Hardware, Boston Organics, Sustainability Roundtable Inc., Tech Networks of Boston, The People’s Pint Brewery, Irving House Inn, Fresh Hair, Solventerra, The Just Crust Pizzeria, Dean's Beans Organic Coffee, Equal Exchange, Great Scapes Nursery, Responsible Wealth, Stride Rite Foundation Chairman Arnold Hiatt, William Gallagher Associates CEO Philip Edmundson, Boloco Co-Founder John Pepper, and many more.
NOTE: Massachusetts business people are available for comment and/or broadcast booking. Please contact Bob Keener, 617-610-6766, bob@businessforafairminimumwage.org.
Business for a Fair Minimum Wage is a Boston-based national network of business owners and executives who believe a fair minimum wage makes good business sense. www.businessforafairminimumwage.org.
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