By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams, July 24, 2024

Former U.S. President Barack Obama had been in office for just over six months when the federal minimum wage was raised to a paltry $7.25 an hour—where it remains today, 15 years later. ...

Some lawmakers at the federal level have pushed, without success, for legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage. Last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) introduced a bill that would incrementally hike the national wage floor to $17 an hour by 2028 and index it to median wages...

North Texas e-News, July 21, 2024
From Business for a Fair Minimum Wage release

July 24 will mark fifteen years since the last federal minimum wage increase in 2009. This is the longest period by far without a raise since the minimum wage was enacted in 1938. The $7.25 federal minimum wage amounts to just $15,080 a year for full-time workers. 

The federal minimum wage peaked in purchasing power in 1968, when the minimum wage was worth $14.70 in today’s dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator. Thirty states now...

By Caroline Hogan
KSHB 41 TV, May 14, 2024

Mike Schroeder loves a black cup of coffee in the morning, but he may love his employees more. The owner of Oddly Correct, a coffee shop on Troost Avenue, pays his employees $19 an hour. That's well above the minimum wage in Missouri.

"The people who are here are the ones that are going to make things happen," Schroeder said. "So if they're not feeling stable or invested, the business isn't gonna go anywhere."

Schroeder actively supports the initiative in Missouri to increase the minimum wage...

St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune, May 13, 2024

... Missouri business owners also support the initiative. The business owners are part of Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, a new and growing coalition of more than 400 business owners who believe raising the minimum wage and paid sick days are good for business.

“Minimum wage increases go right back into the economy as spending at local businesses,” the group said in a statement. “With better wages and earned paid sick time, businesses benefit from lower employee turnover, lower hiring and training costs, increased productivity, better health and safety, and...

By Karen Craigo
Springfield Business Journal, May 10, 2024

Voters may be asked to approve increases to the state’s minimum wage and mandatory sick leave provisions on an upcoming ballot. ...

Business support
Andy Faucett, owner of Bambino’s Cafe LLC, representing Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, said he is in support of the minimum wage hike and sick leave provision. ...

“We don’t start employees at minimum wage at Bambino’s, and we haven’t for a long time,” he said.

Before the 2018 ballot measure, Faucett said it was already clear Bambino’s would have to...

By Kelly Dereuck
Springfield News-Leader, May 8, 2024. Also Columbia Daily Tribune.

Missouri voters may have the opportunity to decide the fate of four initiative petitions this fall, if the signatures collected in support of each measure are verified. ... On May 2, Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages submitted more than 210,000 signatures in support of their ballot initiative that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and allow workers to earn [paid sick days]  ...

Laurie Knowlton, owner of Pickwick Underground Framing in Springfield and a member of Missouri...

By Kacen Bayless
Kansas City Star, May 1, 2024. Also Yahoo News, AOL News, Hastings Tribune (NE), more

Organizers of a campaign to raise Missouri’s minimum wage and guarantee sick leave for workers dropped off signatures on Wednesday to force a statewide vote on the measure. ...

Joseph Chevalier, the owner of Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, said in a statement on Wednesday that businesses should be able to plan ahead for the wage increases and paid sick time. “The minimum wage needs to be raised,” he said. “Small businesses like mine depend on...

By Jack Suntrup
St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 1, 2024

JEFFERSON CITY — Organizers for the campaign seeking a higher minimum wage and guaranteed paid sick time off submitted signatures Wednesday to put the question to voters later this year. Representatives for the campaign, Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, said canvassers turned in more than 200,000 signatures ...

At the same time, the group Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, which said it includes more than 400 members, released a series of statements from business owners supportive of the effort.

“The minimum wage...

KFVS12 TV Heartland News (Cape Girardeau), May 1, 2024. Also KY3 TV (Springfield, MO), KMOV (St. Louis), KSNB (Hastings, NE), WIFR23 (Rockford, IL), WGEM (Quincy, IL)

Missouri voters will likely decide in November whether to raise the state's minimum wage and require employers to provide paid sick leave to workers ...

The minimum wage hike campaign is backed by hundreds of business owners as well.

[Anna Bolt from Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy] "Business owners in our growing coalition know that workers at one business are customers at many other businesses." ...

WATCH VIDEO

Also WIFR23

Emily Manley
Fox 2, KTVI-TV, Missouri State Capitol Bureau, May 1, 2024

Missouri voters could see a question on the ballot later this year. asking whether all workers should receive paid sick leave and if minimum wage should be increased. ...

Roughly 400 businesses across the state also support the petition, saying minimum wage increases circulate right back into the economy.

Anna Bolt, Springfield Business Owner: "When you take care of your employees, they stay longer and take good care of your customers. That's the key to sustaining a successful small business." ...

WATCH VIDEO

Connections with Evan Dawson
WXXI (NPR), Rochester, March 6, 2024

A new proposed bill in the New York State Legislature calls for a statewide minimum wage. If passed, the Upstate Parity and Minimum Wage Protection Act would establish a statewide minimum wage floor of $17 per hour by the year 2026.

Guests include Leon Miller-Out, owner of Singlebrook Technology in Ithaca ...

LISTEN and read more

Op-Ed By Tom Reed and Jorge Valdez, co-owners of Iguana Imports in Long Beach and by Gary Hytrek, professor of geography at California State University, Long Beach.
Signal Tribune, Feb 27, 2024

Long Beach’s tourism and hospitality industries came roaring back in 2023, delivering a nearly $1.8 billion economic impact citywide. While this was great news for those at the top, our city’s struggling small businesses and working families have been shut out of the windfall ... We have a chance to fix that. On March 5, Long Beach voters will have the opportunity to...

By Juan Lasso
LI Herald, Jan 26, 2024

The minimum hourly wage on Long Island has climbed from $15 to $16 starting this year thanks to a mandate, brokered by lawmakers in Albany and Gov. Kath Hochul in last year’s budget deal. ...

Phil Andrews, President of the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, argues the increase, all things considered, signifies good news for employers. He challenged the conventional business wisdom that higher wages would prompt owners to make job cuts and layoffs to absorb higher labor costs. 

“For businesses, when you pay your...

By John Reitmeyer
NJ Spotlight News, Jan 16, 2024

The minimum hourly wage is now over $15 for the first time in New Jersey, thanks to a $1 increase that took effect on Jan. 1, immediately lifting take-home pay for an estimated 350,000 hourly workers. ...

New Jersey was one of 22 states across the nation to see a minimum wage increase take effect on Jan. 1, according to Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a national group that tracks and advocates for such increases.

Among the places that have gone well beyond the $15...

By Victor Ocasio
Newsday, Jan 8, 2024

As local businesses adjust to Long Island’s new $16 minimum wage, some employers said they are concerned about the impact increased labor costs are having on their ability to compete in an already high-priced business environment. ...

Some business groups, however, said the increases represent an opportunity to boost consumer spending at small businesses on the Island.

Luis Vazquez, president of the Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the increase to $16 is “a positive beginning to bridging the wage disparities that exist, and the higher wage would mean...