By Robb Mandelbaum
Forbes, Oct 28, 2016

For ten years, Jeff Rogoff and Jenni Hayes have carefully tended to their small salads-and-pizza restaurant, Sazza, in the south Denver suburbs. Almost immediately, they faced the recession, but managed to stay in business serving local and sustainable ingredients — eventually they opened a small urban farm near the restaurant. Since 2011, Sazza has prospered, enough so that next spring Rogoff and Hayes plan to open a second restaurant on the north side of Denver, in a redeveloped airplane hangar at the edge of the city’s former Stapleton Airport...

By Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
Chicago Tribune, Oct 26, 2016

Suburban Cook County has joined Chicago in adopting a $13 hourly minimum wage... The Cook County Board voted Wednesday to gradually raise the minimum wage to $13 by July 2020, following the legislation's approval Tuesday by the board's Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. The move, which comes more than a year after Chicago implemented the first phase of a minimum wage increase, adds Cook County to the growing list of government bodies seeking to help lift people out of poverty by raising the wages of the lowest-paid...

By Erin O'Toole
KUNC (NPR) Colorado, Oct 26, 2016

Polar Bottle is a manufacturing company based out of Boulder, Colorado, focused on insulated, reusable water bottles made with sports-enthusiasts in mind. It's an unlikely proving ground for Colorado's minimum wage debate. But in 2011, the company decided to do what state voters are now voting on. The company raised the starting minimum wage for their employees to $12 an hour. Now, they say they have learned a few lessons.

To get the politics out of the way, one of the owners of Polar Bottle, Judy Amabile, is totally...

Politico Morning Shift, Oct 25, 2016

...
JOHN ELWAY HIT BY WAGE DEFENSE: A group backing Colorado’s ballot initiative to increase the hourly minimum to $12 by 2020 is tangling with onetime Broncos quarterback John Elway. In a television ad released Sunday, the Duke of Denver said “a harmful and unfair minimum wage increase” was being pushed by out-of-state interests. “I love this state,” he said, “and I’m worried about the games being played with our Constitution.” Colorado Families for a Fair Wage returned fire with a statement Monday from Judy Amabile, owner of Polar Bottle, a Boulder-based company...

By Curtis Wackerle
Aspen Daily News, October 25, 2016

The Aspen Skiing Co. has come out in support of a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would raise the minimum wage in Colorado to $12 an hour by 2020. ...

A statement from the campaign to pass the amendment touted SkiCo’s endorsement, noting that it is one of 250 businesses that have publicly endorsed the plan. Matthew Hamilton, the company’s sustainability director, said in the release that increasing the minimum wage will help combat income inequality “while increasing our ability to recruit and retain...

Letter to the Editor By Richard Carpenter, CEO UltraSteam
Durango Herald and Cortez Journal, Oct 25, 2016

As a local business owner, I fully support an increase in the minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2020. This ballot initiative is a modest but good way to start making an economy that works for everyone, employers and employees alike.

Phased in over four years, small businesses like mine will have time to adjust and adapt. I want our employees to be able to afford rent, mortgages, groceries and what our other local businesses are selling...

Op-Ed By Barbara Roberts
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Oct 25, 2016

I’ve heard a lot of Chicken Little talk lately.

With the election around the corner, more and more people are talking about Amendment 70—the ballot initiative that would gradually raise the state’s minimum wage to $12 by 2020. I’ve heard some crazy things, like an increased minimum wage will result in $18 hamburgers and $200 haircuts.

As a business owner, that kind of “sky is falling” rhetoric insults my common sense. Instead, I dig out my trusty calculator and run the numbers. Our entry...

By Bryan Grossman
Colorado Springs Business Journal, Oct 21, 2016

Amendment 70 proponents say the state’s minimum wage should be a living wage, while opponents say the market — not legislation — should decide. ...

Full-time workers making the minimum wage in Colorado earn approximately $17,285 annually, or about $300 per week after taxes, and many depend on public assistance. ...

Debra Brown, campaign manager for the wage-increase advocacy group Colorado Business for Fair Minimum Wage, said raising the minimum wage could help businesses by improving employee productivity and morale and reducing turnover. And minimum...

By Lindsay Tice
Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal, October 18, 2016

Question 4: Do you want to raise the minimum hourly wage of $7.50 to $9 in 2017, with annual $1 increases up to $12 in 2020, and annual cost-of-living increases thereafter; and do you want to raise the direct wage for service workers who receive tips from half the minimum wage to $5 in 2017, with annual $1 increases until it reaches the adjusted minimum wage?

On Nov. 8, voters will decide whether Maine employers must give the state's lowest-wage workers a raise. 

Proponents of Question...

By Shaun Boyd
CBS Denver, Oct 14, 2016

One of the most contentious ballot measures this election would raise the minimum wage in Colorado. Right now, it’s $8.31 an hour, which is higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Under Amendment 70, it would increase gradually to $12 an hour by January 2020. ...

See more

Some 200 business leaders signed, including the founder of Illegal Pete's, Pete Turner

By Andra Zeppelin
Eater Denver, Oct 12, 2016

As November 8 approaches, the ads multiply and so do the mailers and volume of the advocacy. A group called Colorado Business for a Fair Minimum Wage is urging Colorado citizens to vote in favor of Amendment 70 to raise the minimum wage from the current  $8.31. The increase would first go to $9.30 on January 1, 2017. After that, each year, it would go up by 90 cents until it reaches $12 in January...

By Michael Roberts
Westword, Oct 12, 2016

Editor's note: As part of our continuing election coverage, we're taking a closer look at amendments and propositions that will be on the Colorado ballot in November. ... Amendment 70 would boost the minimum wage from its current $8.31 per hour to $12 by 2020, with incremental bumps over a three-year period.

In the following interview, Debra Brown, campaign manager for Colorado Business for a Fair Minimum Wage — a key part of a coalition under the Colorado Families for a Fair Wage banner — outlines the proposal and responds to...

By Kenneth Hilario
Philadelphia Business Journal, Oct 12, 2016

A slice of Washington, D.C., will finally come to Philadelphia when an unusual pizza concept with a cult following opens its first outpost in the Philadelphia area. Fast-casual pizza restaurant concept &pizza earlier this year inked a deal for nearly 2,400-square-feet of space at 1430 Walnut St., and it will open its doors at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 13. The 64-seat restaurant will be the brand's 17th restaurant overall and the first outside the Washington, D.C., area.

"Our goal is to have people fall in love with...

2016 Indy Endorsements, part 1

Editorial, Colorado Springs Independent, Oct 12, 2016

... Amendment 70, State Minimum Wage: This would raise the state minimum wage from $8.31 to $9.30 on Jan. 1, with further raises of 90 cents an hour each year until reaching $12 an hour on Jan. 1, 2020. More adjustments beyond that would be allowed, tied to cost of living.

Supporters say women and young adults would be impacted positively, because they are among the most affected by the suppressed current minimum wage. Arguments by opponents warn that small businesses would suffer...

By Kate Rogers
CNBC, October 11, 2016

As the general election draws ever closer, Main Street businesses are grappling with the idea of a higher federal minimum wage. Momentum for an increase is building. ... Separately, four states are considering raises for workers on November 8th: Arizona, Maine, and Colorado have $12 on the ballot, while Washington State is taking up a wage of $13.50 an hour, according to the National Employment Law Project. ...

No matter which side of the debate entrepreneurs fall on, they are certainly thinking about how wage hikes may impact their...