By Dana Gerber
Boston Globe, Jan 1, 2023
... On Jan. 1, the state’s minimum wage increased from $14.25 an hour to $15, one of the highest rates in the nation. It was the final step in a series of pay hikes laid out in the 2018 “grand bargain" ...
But with consumer prices up 7.1 percent from last year, the impact of this increase has been especially dampened: Today’s $15 gets you only as far as $12.70 did in June 2018, when Governor Charlie Baker signed the incremental increases into law, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. ...
Still, even in the midst of a shaky economy, not every business is set on keeping payrolls as low as possible. Many employers believe that increasing base pay reduces turnover and training costs and increases productivity — valuable commodities when dedicated workers are hard to find.
“Staff that have been there two or three years are more than twice as productive as staff that have been there two months that you’re continually training,” said John Schall, the owner of El Jefe’s Taqueria, which has four Boston locations. The chain already had a base pay of $15.25 and $16.25 an hour, depending on the shift, but is boosting both those rates by a dollar to stay ahead of the minimum wage. ...
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