Testimony on House Bill 988 on Raising the Maryland Minimum Wage
Before House Economic Matters Committee, March 8, 2011

Brian England, Co-Owner, British American Auto Care, Columbia, MD

My name is Brian England. I am co-owner with my wife of British American Auto Care Inc. an auto service and repair facility in Columbia. We have been in business since 1978 and our company has won many awards, including Maryland Small Business of the Year. Last year, we were one of five companies that were awarded the 2010 Maryland Green Registry Leadership Award. We pay our employees...

Jefferson City -- A bill that would repeal a 2006 voter initiative by capping the state minimum wage has moved to the Senate, where its prospects are uncertain.

The bill was a goal of House leadership, but their Senate counterparts haven't made it as much of a priority. Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer said he didn't know when - or even if - the chamber would take up the bill.

"Others have been a greater priority for me," he said.

The bill would cap the state minimum wage at the federal level, which is...

By Kathrine Olsen Flaate
Truman State University Index, March 3, 2011

The Missouri House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would freeze Missouri minimum wage from exceeding the federal minimum wage, even if the Consumer Price Index increases.

If the cost of living increases, the minimum wage of $7.25 would not increase with it as it normally does. The federal minimum wage and state minimum wage currently are the same. The Missouri Senate still has to pass the bill before it is made law.

The Committee on International Trade and Job creation, which Representative...

Testimony on SB716,“Labor and Employment - Maryland Wage and Hour Law - Payment of Wages”
For Senate Finance Committee, March 3, 2011

Craig Sewell, Owner, A Cook’s Café, Annapolis

I am submitting this testimony to voice my support as a business owner for raising Maryland’s minimum wage.  It is a vital step for the wellbeing of our workers, our economy and our state.

A Cook’s Café has been in business in Annapolis since 2002.  Its business model is based on four activities – restaurant, catering, cooking instruction and connecting consumers with local foods through its Market...

By Rebecca Berg
St. Louis Post Dispatch, Feb 24, 2011

About 32 years ago, Lew Prince started a business with 300 records and $20.

Today, Vintage Vinyl in University City has ballooned into a multimillion-dollar business with 19 full-time and six part-time employees.

Prince attributes the success of his business model to two factors in particular: quality employees and loyal customers. But both would be at risk, he said, if state legislators pushing minimum wage restrictions get their way.

Just four years after Missouri voters approved a measure to raise the state's minimum wage, the...

By Lew Prince
St. Louis Post Dispatch, Feb 23, 2011

The Republicans in the Missouri Legislature are trying to overturn the clearly expressed will of the people in order to give gigantic welfare checks to some of America's biggest corporations.

Nearly 1.6 million Missourians voted to raise the minimum wage in 2006. Only 501,657 voted against the proposition. That was a 3-to-1 margin.

To put that into perspective, in the same election, Democrat Claire McCaskill beat Republican Jim Talent by fewer than 49,000 votes in the U.S. Senate race. That means more than a million...

Mark Reardon Show

CBS St. Louis, KMOX, Feb 23, 2011

Limiting Missouri’s Minimum Wage

Missouri Senator Jason Crowell of Cape Girardeau and Vintage Vinyl owner Lew Prince dispute the state’s effort to limit the minimum wage.

Listen Here: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/mark-reardon-show-wednesday-febr…

By Wes Duplantier/The Associated Press
Columbia Missourian, January 26, 2011

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri business owners and hourly workers voiced mixed opinions Wednesday about whether the state should change its minimum wage law.

Several business owners told a House panel that lawmakers should repeal a minimum wage law Missouri voters approved in 2006 and instead keep its minimum wage equal to the federal rate. The 2006 law provides for annual increases based on the pace of inflation in the Midwest.

The business owners said Missouri's minimum wage should stay equal to the federal minimum, $7.25...

WATCH VIDEO

ANNAPOLIS, MD (CNN) - Lawmakers in Maryland are debating raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10 an hour over the next two years.

The legislation is touted as a stimulus package for the state and supporters say that the increase will pump more than $1 billion into the economy.

State senator Rob Garagiola (D) said studies indicate that raising minimum wage does not encourage job loss.

"You get a positive economic impact in helping those middle-class workers be able to pay their mortgage, pay their bills and meet their family obligations," Garagiola...

Kitchen workers often make minimum wage. So do housekeepers and store clerks. That’s $7.25 an hour, but a bill in Annapolis would raise it to $8.25 this year, to $9.10 next year and in 2013 to $10 an hour.

“We believe a job should keep people out of poverty, not in it,” said Rev. Ken Brooker-Langston.

A plant farm owner joined religious and labor leaders to support paying workers more. “I can count on those employees to look after the quality of products we make,” said John Shepley.

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce says if...

Progressive Maryland and several state senators are behind a movement aiming to raise the state's minimum wage over the next few years. Under the plan, the state's minimum wage would go from $7.25 an hour to $10 an hour by 2013.

John Shepley, co-owner of Emory Knoll Farms, says paying his employees more money has many advantages to him, including not having to deal with employee turn around.

Those behind the movement say putting more money in Marylanders’ pockets will help to stimulate the state's economy.

© 2011 Scripps Media Inc

By C. Ford Runge Pioneer Press, 07/13/2010

Gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer's most substantive economic proposal to date is a 'tip credit': to reduce the incomes of waiters and waitresses in Minnesota by pushing their wages below the minimum to compensate for tip income. Emmer noted breathlessly last week that at least three waiters at the Eagle Street Grille in St. Paul were being paid $100,000. "Tips for Tom," as he calls it, is presumably justified as a way of lowering wages to increase business profits - an idea going back at least to Herbert Hoover...

By George Pyle, The Buffalo News

McClatchy-Tribune Regional News, Apr. 19, 2010

Can Buffalo afford to pay its workers enough that they can afford to live in Buffalo? Can we make ethanol pay? Is Buffalo a good place to ride out a recession?

- Feasibility divides 'living wage' debate [http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/04/18/1022977/feasibility-divides-living-wage.html] -- George Pyle/The Buffalo News

"It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labor as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged."...

By Carmen Blanco
Catholic News Service, Aug 11, 2009

Workers in 30 states and the District of Columbia have been impacted by the [July] 24 increase in the federal minimum wage from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, but the question of whether the increase will help or hurt the economy remains to be seen. "Families are relying on low minimum wages more than ever," Paul Sonn, legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project, told Catholic News Service in a phone interview. "There is a widespread misconception that minimum-wage workers are largely comprised of teenagers...

Money Talk with Angela Carter
Live Chat, New Haven Register, 7/29/2009

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