Puget Sound Business Journal (WA), March 5, 2013

Costco Wholesale Corp. President and CEO Craig Jelinek is putting his name and company in the forefront of the latest drive to increase the federal minimum wage.

Jelinek was prominently quoted in a press release issued Tuesday by the national advocacy group Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.

The announcement coincided with the introduction of a bill in Congress that would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25 an hour, with provisions for annual cost-of-living increases. ...

Costco has long advocated employee...

By Paul Frumkin
Nation's Restaurant News, March 5, 2013

Two lawmakers, flanked by a restaurant owner and two quick-service employees, held a press conference Tuesday to jointly introduce a bill seeking to raise the federal minimum wage by nearly 40 percent.

The measure would increase the minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour to $10.10 by 2016. After that, it would be indexed to inflation, which would provide for automatic adjustments every year, according to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the lawmakers who introduced the bill. …

Speaking at the press...

Saugerties Post Star, March 5, 2013

Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assemblyman Keith L.T. Wright joined with Labor Committee Chair Carl E. Heastie and members of the Assembly Majority to announce plans to pass legislation (A.38a) today to raise the minimum wage in New York to $9 an hour. The legislation includes indexing which will tie future increases to inflation.

“Our proposal will directly benefit more than 925,000 New Yorkers. It will benefit families trapped between the desire for financial independence and the constant erosion of their wages. By passing this legislation, we will be rewarding...

YNN Capital Tonight, March 5, 2013

As the Assembly took up a bill to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour, advocates are working with members of the business community to try to pressure the Senate. Cynthia DiBartolo, the CEO of Tigress Financial Partners and chair of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, Darius Ross, the managing partner of D Alexander Ross Real Estate Capital Partners, and Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union presidnet Stuart Appelbaum discuss the latest on the issue.

http://capitaltonightny.ynn.com/2013/03/business-and-labor-leaders-talk…

By Tanique Williams
Legislative Gazette, March 5, 2013

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Assemblyman Keith Wright, D-Harlem, joined with Labor Committee Chair Carl E. Heastie, D-Bronx, and members of the Assembly Democrats announced plans Tuesday to pass legislation (A.38a) that would raise the minimum wage to $9 per hours and index it to the rate of inflation. … 

Silver said that if enacted, the Assembly's proposal would directly benefit more than 925,000 working New Yorkers, while stimulating local economies as families who receive an increase in wages will spend their additional income in neighborhood...

CPA Practice Advisor, March 5, 2013

A collection of business owners applauded today's introduction of legislation to raise the federal minimum wage for the first time since 2009. U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA) introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which would gradually raise the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 an hour to $10.10, then provide for annual increases linked to the rising cost of living.

"At Costco, we know that paying employees good wages makes good sense for business," said Craig Jelinek, Costco's President and CEO...

Op-Ed By Karen Woodall
Orlando Sentinel, March 1, 2013

... A large body of academic research has shown that higher wages not only increase purchasing power, they improve productivity in the workplace. Both of these benefits mean that when minimum-wage workers get a raise, the benefits spread beyond them to the entire economy.

Floridians understood this principle in 2004 when more than 70 percent of voters amended the state constitution to increase the state minimum wage above the federal minimum by $1, with an automatic annual increase based on inflation. Today, the minimum wage in Florida...

By Kristin Collins, Dale Belluomini, Russell Ferro and Alex Smith
The Doings Hindsdale/A Chicago Sun Times publication, March 1, 2013

Since the minimum wage was established in 1938, people have been arguing whether minimum wage is beneficial for America. ...

Getting rid of the minimum wage will reduce consumer purchasing power, reduce spending, and hurt the overall economy. Also, studies by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, show that minimum wage does not increase unemployment, even in bad times. The minimum wage helps businesses, people of all...

By Rachael Pacella
Capital Gazette (MD), March 1, 2013 

... The bill calls for a three-step increase in the state’s $7.25 per hour minimum wage. By July 1, 2015, the wage would hit $10. ...

Bill sponsor Del. Aisha Braveboy, D-Prince George’s County, argued that if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation it would be about $10 today. ...

David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute said increasing the minimum wage would boost consumer spending and the overall economy.

“Raising the minimum wage would ... put more money in the pockets of workers that...

WBAL (Maryland) News, Feb 27, 2013

By Robert Lang 

Lawmakers in Annapolis are considering raising the minimum wage in Maryland. which is now $7.25 an hour.

A bill before the House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate would boost the wage in three stages to $10 an hour by July, 2015, and it would then tie the wage to the cost of living. Additionally, workers who receive tips would get a 20% increase in their wages.

Restaurant owners were among those who testified against the bill at a House committee hearing on Wednesday.

Other business owners...

By Matt Glynn
Buffalo News, Feb 26, 2013 

... Both Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and President Obama have backed increasing the minimum wage. Monday, the Coalition for Economic Justice, State Sen. Timothy M. Kennedy, D-Buffalo, and various advocacy groups and unions said an increase is needed to bring low-wage earners above the federal poverty line.

“It is time to raise the minimum wage to benefit our workers, stimulate our economy and strengthen our communities,” Micaela Shapiro-Shellaby, organizing director of the Coalition for Economic Justice, said at a rally on Franklin Street in downtown Buffalo.

Some state...

World Finance, Feb 22 2013

The age old debate is a moot point; minimum wage increases do not stifle employment

Every time one politician or another proposes doing anything to the minimum wage, be it increase it, cut it, or scrap it altogether, financial and economic commentators go into a frenzy. The general consensus suggests even the most modest of increases will send unemployment skyrocketing and lead small businesses to bankruptcy. This line of argument is as old as minimum wage itself, and just not correct. President Obama has been the latest to start a...

By Karen E. Klein and Nick Leiber
Bloomberg BusinessWeek, February 21, 2013

President Barack Obama’s recent proposal to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour by the end of 2015 has an unlikely ally: a sizable swath of America’s 6 million small employers....  Now, with public anger over income inequality deepening and economic research challenging the notion that higher wages suppress employment, a growing number of small business advocates support a hike.

That includes dozens of business groups and networks composed primarily of small business owners such as the Main Street...

By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post, February 21, 2013 

… the White House argues that “modestly” raising the pay rate will not stall the jobs recovery. “A range of economic studies show that modestly raising the minimum wage increases earnings and reduces poverty without jeopardizing employment,” according to the White House press office. ...

At a White House meeting of executives of small and medium-sized business in November that covered a range of economic issues, one advocated for raising the rate.

“I think it’s the ethical thing to do, to come up with a wage that a...

MSNBC, Up with Chris Hayes, Feb 16, 2013

Excerpts (video links below):

Chris Hayes: You actually met with the President along with small business owners. My understanding is that this came up - specifically minimum wage.

Lew Prince, Owner, Vintage Vinyl, St. Louis: Yes. … The President sat down in the room with a dozen small business people. and literally said what can I do for you? The first thing that one of us said, the guy that owns Uncommon Goods in Brooklyn - raise the minimum wage to ten bucks. In unison the other...