By Lisa Jennings
Nation's Restaurant News, April 30 2014

A key Senate vote on Wednesday blocked a bill that set out to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour — a result supported by restaurant industry associations including the National Restaurant Association and National Council of Chain Restaurants. ...

A coalition of business leaders that support Harkin’s bill say the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour — and not the proposed increase — is what is hurting businesses and the economy.

Chris Sommers, co-owner of Euclid Hospitality Group, which includes...

By Tom Wilemon
The Tennessean, April 30, 2014

The "Give America a Raise" bus arrived in Nashville and then left Tennessee as a bill to raise the minimum wage stalled in the U.S. Senate. The bill failed to get past a procedural roadblock, receiving 54 votes to go forward for debate when 60 were needed. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker was the lone Republican voting to allow the bill to go forward.

"While I think the underlying policy is problematic, I think we should always debate ways to help improve the standard of living of Americans," Corker...

By Tom Troy
Toledo Blade, April 30, 2014

Local advocates of raising the federal minimum wage brought their bus tour to Toledo on Tuesday to press Congress to pass a three-year increase to $10.10 per hour. Several local speakers, including two South Toledo business owners, advocated for the rise as the way to help people out of poverty and motivate workers, and to spin off and benefit the economy. ...

Dave Schultz, president of Keystone Press Inc. on Broadway, said his family business has 10 employees and all are paid more than the minimum wage.

“If...

By Tim McNicholas
NBC24, WNWO, April 30, 2014

Senate Republicans have blocked a bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Forty-two Senators voted against the measure, including Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH). ...

Toledo business owner Dave Schultz called Sen. Portman and urged him to vote in favor of a minimum wage increase. He has ten employees who make at least $11 an hour. Ohio’s minimum wage is $7.95.

“I’m disappointed,” Schultz said after the vote. “I would hope that our Congress people would have the working families at mind when they’re voting...

By Barb Berggoetz
Indianapolis Star, April 28, 2014

A couple of local employers talked about how raising their workers' pay above the current minimum wage has attracted better-quality employees. Employees making low wages spoke about working two jobs and struggling to make ends meet. It was all part of a rally Monday to support an increase in the federal minimum wage. The rally was spurred by a stop on Monument Circle by a national bus tour organized by Americans United for Change. ...

Aaron Schaler, who has ownership rights for Pizza King in Indianapolis, said he decided to...

Associated Press, April 25, 2014

ST. LOUIS (AP) — ... The "Give America A Raise" tour is visiting 20 states to promote an increase in the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from the current minimum of $7.25. A change in state law increased the minimum wage in Missouri to $7.50 an hour in January. ... The local rally is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Vintage Vinyl record store on the Delmar Loop.

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New Mexico Daily Lobo, April 24, 2014

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), foreground, speaks in support of a $10.10 national minimum wage at a news conference at Focus Ink on Tuesday. Americans United for Change, an income equity advocacy group visited Albuquerque as part of the “Give America a Raise Bus Tour.” Other speakers included Nancy Denker, owner of Focus Ink, Carter Bundy, political and legislative director of the New Mexican council of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Juan Certain, co-owner of The Brew coffee shop. Certain and Denker both...

By Jeremy Foster, News Editor
KTAR-FM, April 22, 2014

PHOENIX -- ... On Monday afternoon, small business owners, employees and anti-poverty activists joined several state lawmakers for a rally at the State Capitol as part of the "Give America a Raise" bus tour. The message to Congress was clear: Raise the minimum wage in Arizona from $7.90 to $10.10 an hour.

Brandon Cooley runs an insurance agency in central Phoenix and said employers who say they can't afford to pay their workers an extra $2.20 an hour are only hurting themselves.

"They can't afford not...

Op-Ed By Scott Nash
Washington Post, April 20, 2014

One of the companies I admire most is Costco. ... Back in 2008 when the economy was in a downward spiral, founder and chief executive Jim Sinegal said that instead of looking for ways to cut costs and reduce compensation like most companies were doing, it was especially important to find ways of supporting the staff in this time of hardship. ...

Costco’s average pay rate is $21 per hour, while BJ’s average is $11 and Sam’s Club’s $12. However, Costco is the performance leader in the club...

Op-Ed By Fran Quigley
Indianapolis Star, April 15, 2014

... The McDonald’s and Walmart business model may be built on exorbitant CEO salaries and referring their front-line employees to the welfare office, food pantries and plasma banks. But that is not the way mom and pop stores want to operate, in part because low-paid workers have such limited purchasing power. “The biggest problem for Main Street businesses is lack of customer demand,” Business for a Fair Minimum Wage director Holly Sklar says. “Corporate profits are at their highest since 1950, as a percentage of national income...

Op-Ed By State Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood
Detroit News, April 15, 2014

Last week, I tried living on just $42 worth of groceries. The endeavor was part of the “Minimum Wage Grocery Challenge,” where state legislators across the country are learning what it’s like to face the hardships working families face every day. ... 

The more I learn about what it truly means to survive on the scarce resources that the minimum wage permits, the more wholeheartedly I understand that it is simply not enough. While I believe that allowing people the opportunity to cross the poverty...

By Dan Greenwald
KMOV TV St. Louis, April 14, 2014

US Senator Dick Durbin was in the Metro East Monday in support of a plan to raise the minimum wage. ... Durbin also said the increase would help businesses because it would give their customers more money to spend.

[Business owner Eric Neal participated in the Roundtable event]

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By Alex Jackson
Capital Gazette, April 8, 2014

The Maryland General Assembly has sent Gov. Martin O'Malley legislation to hike the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2018.

The House of Delegates voted 87-47 on Monday, the final day of the assembly's 90-day session, to concur with Senate changes to the bill. The Senate passed the bill on Saturday by a 34-13 vote.

Under the bill, Maryland's minimum wage would rise from $7.25 to $8 an hour on Jan. 1, 2015; to $8.25 on July 1, 2015; to $8.75 on July 1, 2016; to $9.25...

State's Minimum Wage to Hit $10.10 An Hour By 2018
By Scott Calvert and Eric Morath
Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2014

Maryland lawmakers on Monday approved gradually raising the minimum wage there to $10.10 an hour, the latest in a wave of states that have boosted the pay rate amid uncertain prospects in Congress for a federal increase. ...

Some businesses owners say the wage increase will help their bottom lines.

"This will be good for my business," said Scott Nash, chief executive of Mom's Organic Market, a grocer with seven Maryland locations. "Larger...

Washington Post, April 7, 2014

Excerpt: Pay: Hardware store owner backs increase
By Jonathan O’Connell, Capital Business

Gina Schaefer’s Ace Hardware store on P Street NW contributed to the resurgence of Logan Circle, and she now owns nine stores in D.C. and Maryland. When developers ask residents what retailers they’d like to see in their own neighborhoods, Schaefer’s name is frequently among those mentioned. Schaefer says one key to her success has been paying her employees more than competitors, and last week she joined officials on Capitol Hill to support a federal minimum wage increase.

“When...