By Katie Johnston
Boston Globe, Dec 26, 2018

At Salon Herdis in Northampton, the employees are getting a special New Year’s bonus: a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour, up from $11. ...

Massachusetts is one of 20 states raising its minimum wage Jan. 1. At $12, it will be the highest in the nation, along with California’s and Washington state’s. In Massachusetts, the minimum will go up gradually every year until it hits $15 in 2023. Meantime, the federal minimum, still in place in 21 states, remains at $7.25.

In Massachusetts, more than 300...

By Shira Schoenberg
Springfield Republican/ MassLive.com, Dec. 24, 2018

The minimum wage in Massachusetts will increase to $12 an hour on Jan. 1. ... Gov. Charlie Baker in June signed the so-called “grand bargain,” a bill prompted by several proposed ballot questions that will gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, phase out Sunday premium pay, establish a paid family and medical leave program and implement a permanent sales tax holiday one weekend a year. ...

Some business owners say they welcome the change. Dan Rosenberg, the founder of Real Pickles Cooperative in Greenfield, currently...

By William Westhoven
Daily Record (NJ), Dec. 12, 2018

As the Legislature debates a proposal to slowly raise the state minimum wage to $15 per hour, Gov. Phil Murphy toured a local business that says starting employees at $17 per hour is a big part of their 30-year history of success.

"If people are going to show up, and be productive, and be committed and really deliver the highest-quality products, you need to make sure to pay a living wage," said Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, CEO of Earth Friendly Products.

"Make no doubt, it is a mindset that has built...

ROI-NJ, Dec 12, 2018

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks doesn’t need to be convinced about the benefits of a $15 minimum wage for one simple reason: She pays more.

And she said she sees the benefits.

Vlahakis-Hanks, the CEO and president of Earth Friendly Products, a manufacturer that makes more than 200 green cleaning products at its Parsippany plant, said the company’s investment in its employees has been fundamental to its success for more than three decades.

Vlahakis-Hanks, speaking at an event with Gov. Phil Murphy, explained her support.

“We know from our own experience that raising...

TAPinto, December 12, 2018

PARSIPPANY, NJ - Mayor Michael Soriano joined Governor Murphy at Parsippany Based, Earth Friendly Products to express their support for a $15 minimum wage.  Earth Friendly Products has offered $17/hour as a minimum wage at their company for all employees since 2014.  The company was used as an example for how all business should be run. ...

Read more

By John Reitmeyer
NJ Spotlight, Dec 12, 2018

Gov. Phil Murphy and Democratic leaders remain divided over key issues, including the number of workers who’d have to wait longer for the increase ...

The bill put forward by [Assembly Speaker Craig] Coughlin last week would also bring the minimum wage gradually to $15, with an initial hike to $9.50 on July 1, 2019. The rate would then go up to $11 on January 1, 2020 and be increased by $1.15 each subsequent year until it reached $15 in 2024.

But for seasonal workers, farmworkers, teenagers and the...

By Daniel J. Munoz
NJBIZ, Dec. 12, 2018

Gov. Phil Murphy said he's “open-minded” and confident about finding “common ground” as he and lawmakers hash out a bill that would raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Speaking Tuesday after a tour of the Earth Friendly Products factory in Parsippany, Murphy decried several aspects of a bill Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-19th District, put on the table last week to raise the minimum wage. ...

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By Frank L. Cahill
Parsippany Focus, Dec 11, 2018

PARSIPPANY — Governor Phil Murphy today joined Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, the president and CEO of Earth Friendly Products®, maker of more than 200 ECOS® brand green cleaning products, at the company’s Parsippany manufacturing plant located at 50 Lackawanna Avenue, to support a $15.00 state minimum wage and demonstrate how the company’s investment in its employees is fundamental to its long-term business success. Earth Friendly Products, which has operated in New Jersey for 30 years, starts employees at $17.00 an hour and increased its investment in the state’s economy and...

By William Westhoven
Daily Record (NJ) Video Feature, Dec. 11, 2018

Gov. Phil Murphy tours a Parsippany business, Earth Friendly Products, that says starting employees at $17 per hour is a big part of their 30-year history of success.

WATCH VIDEO

By Michael Aron
NJTV News, December 11, 2018

Earth Friendly Products in Parsippany makes environmentally sound cleaning products like ECOS laundry detergent. Gov. Phil Murphy visited Tuesday because the company pays its workers a $17 minimum wage.

Murphy is negotiating a minimum wage bill with the Legislature. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin has a bill that would phase in a $15 minimum wage by 2024. It would also exclude farmworkers, seasonal workers, teenagers under 18 and businesses under 10 employees. Those categories would be on a slower path to $15 in 2029.

Murphy said Friday that latter position...

WCBS News Radio 880, Dec 11, 2018

PARSIPPANY, N.J. (WCBS 880) — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday continued to push to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

The Democratic governor addressed the bill introduced by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, saying he does not support the length of time needed to increase New Jersey’s minimum. ...

The governor made his comments while touring Earth Friendly Products, an environmentally friendly cleaning products company with a plant in Parsippany.

The company pays its workers $17 an hour.

“Earth Friendly Products will be the model we...

Insider NJ, December 11, 2018

Office of the Governor Press Release
PARSIPPANY – As part of his ongoing commitment to building  a stronger and fairer New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy today toured Earth Friendly Products in Parsippany and expressed his support for a $15 minimum wage for all working New Jerseyans.

“A $15 minimum wage will not only lift up the current generation of New Jersey working families, but ensure fairness and opportunity for future generations,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “For the more than one million New Jersey workers who earn less than $15 an hour...

By Michael Symons
New Jersey 101.5, December 11, 2018. Also WPG 104.1, WOBM 92.7

A crucial two days are ahead in the debate over raising New Jersey minimum wage to $15 an hour... Staffers for Gov. Phil Murphy and the Legislature’s top two Democrats are set to meet Wednesday. Then on Thursday, Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin plan to hold their first meeting in over two months.

Coughlin, D-Middlesex, last week introduced legislation that was quickly endorsed by Sweeney that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2024, though for...

By Ron Ruggless
Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 20, 2018

More than 20 states and a number of municipalities will be increasing the minimum wage just before or on New Year’s Day 2019, including recent statewide increases approved by voters in Arkansas and Missouri. Voters in both states turned out Nov. 6 in record numbers to raise the minimum wage, and other states have already approved graduated increases scheduled to go into effect with the turn of the calendar year. ...

Some commerce groups, such as Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, supported raising the minimum wages in November’s Arkansas and Missouri initiatives.

By Caroline Kelly
CNN, November 9, 2018

...Voters in both Arkansas and Missouri, two states that went strongly for President Donald Trump in 2016, passed ballot initiatives to increase the state minimum wage during Tuesday's midterm elections.

Initiatives in Florida, Nevada and North Dakota are already in the works for the presidential ballot in 2020. ...Minimum wage ballot initiatives have also won handily in red and purple states, such as South Dakota, Nebraska and Arizona, in the past two election cycles.

Feet on the ground

More than 700 Missouri businesses supported the measure ...