By Kate Taylor
Entrepreneur, Dec 3, 2013. Also Reuters, other outlets

... Business owners in general are divided on raising the minimum wage. A November Gallup poll found that small-business owners were split nearly 50-50 on raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour from the current $7.25. ...

For franchise owners, there's a fine line between what they might like to pay their employees and what they realistically can pay without damaging profits. At the same time, they have to pay competitively enough so that they aren't constantly wasting money hiring and training employees...

By Dean Cycon
Special to the Worcester Business Journal, Nov 25, 2013 

We've all heard the arguments against raising the minimum wage: It's bad for business and will result in higher unemployment.

I'm in the coffee business, and those arguments don't amount to a hill of beans.

Let's start with the idea that paying people more than the current minimum hourly wage of $8 in Massachusetts is bad for business. On the contrary. Most successful, thriving businesses, including mine, pay well above $8. The entry-level starting wage at Dean's Beans is $12 per hour. We...

By Patrick Clark
Bloomberg Business Week, Nov 21, 2013

... Almost half of small business owners support a hike [in the minimum wage], according to a new survey of about 600 owners published today by Wells Fargo (WFC) and Gallup.

Among the findings: Forty-seven percent of respondents, most of whom generate less than $2 million in annual revenue, said they would approve of a law setting the minimum wage at $9.50....

After President Obama proposed raising the minimum wage to $9 from its current $7.25 by 2015, we reported on the increasing support for a...

By John J. Monahan
Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Nov 19, 2013

BOSTON — The state Senate is set to act Tuesday on raising the minimum wage to $11 by 2016, but if that bill is not adopted, a referendum for the November 2014 ballot for an increase in the minimum wage could make its way to the ballot. ...

Some businesses, however, told lawmakers Monday they support the increase. Joseph Rotella of Spencer Organ Co. in Waltham said the current wage is outdated and that when the minimum wage does not cover workers' necessities, it hurts...

Op-Ed By David Bolotsky
Triple Pundit, Policy Points, Nov 12, 2013

... We employ hundreds of entry-level customer service and warehouse workers at Uncommon Goods. And I’m in favor of government making it mandatory for businesses like mine to pay them a wage they can live on.  Unfortunately, today’s $7.25 minimum wage is worth a third less than the minimum wage of 1968 – 45 years ago.

As a business owner, I have to deal with annual price increases in rent, utility bills and supplies. Our workers also face higher costs for their necessities, and should...

Op-Ed By George Leef
Forbes, Nov 11, 2013

... Among the organizations pushing for an increase in the minimum wage is one called Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. The business people behind it say that raising the minimum would be highly beneficial, with little or no cost.

Those people could immediately lead by example and raise the compensation of any or all of their own workers (including those who already earn more than their proposed minimum) if they really believe doing so would be beneficial. Maybe it would be —  in their own firms. But...

By Bill Knight
Column, Nov 7, 2013

Like most Americans, I’ve worked minimum-wage jobs. As an adolescent and a young adult, I worked on a farm, in a grocery store, and for a carpenter, and co-workers weren’t all teens. A grouchy guy in his 40s who smoked unfiltered Camels and swung a hammer like it was a Stradivarius pounded nails alongside me; a single mom was head cashier, knew the supermarket better than the boss, and mothered bag boys as well as ran the register.... [T]he following seven facts about the minimum wage show that...

By Marilyn Geewax
NPR, Nov 6, 2013 

On many economic issues, Americans are deeply divided. But when it comes to giving pay raises to minimum wage workers, voters overwhelmingly say: Do it. That message jumped out Tuesday when more than 6 in 10 voters in New Jersey approved an increase in their state's minimum hourly wage. ...

But while wage increases generally win votes at the state and local level, Congress is slow to act on raising the federal level. The wage had been frozen at $5.15 an hour from 1997 to 2007. That year, Congress...

By Mark Koba, Senior Editor
CNBC, Nov 6, 2013

New Jersey voters overwhelming approved a ballot measure in Tuesday's off-year election to raise the state's minimum wage to $8.25 an hour on Jan. 1. Similar results are expected in Washington, where votes are still being counted on a ballot measure to increase the minimum wage for workers around Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to $15 an hour. ... Similar efforts are underway across the country, from the District of Columbia to South Dakota. ...

"Voters have given New Jersey a raise, boosting businesses and workers, and building momentum for...

By Danielle Kurtzleben
US News & World Report, Nov 6, 2013  

The minimum wages in one state and one city are about to creep higher, due to the passage of two ballot measures Tuesday night. New Jersey voted to raise its minimum wage from the federally mandated $7.25 to $8.25 per hour and to impose annual cost-of-living increases. That measure passed with a strong 61 percent support. In SeaTac, a suburb of Seattle, voters also chose to boost the minimum wage for some workers to $15, nearly $6 above the current Washington state minimum wage of...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Voters in New Jersey and SeaTac, Wash., sent "a clear signal" to politicians by approving higher minimum wages standards, a national advocate said Wednesday.

"The voters understand that we cannot build a recovery on low-wage jobs – and when elected officials don't get the message, the voters will take action to raise wages on their own," Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, said in a statement. ...

"At $7.25, the minimum wage has less buying power now than it did in 1950," Director of Business for...

By Susan K. Livio
The Star-Ledger, Nov 5, 2013

TRENTON — New Jersey voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot question today that will raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 an hour in January and amends the state Constitution to tie future increases to inflation. ...

“A higher minimum wage will actually help business owners by reducing absenteeism and worker turnover, which costs businesses way more than nickel and dime-ing on wages," Mitch Cahn, president of Unionwear, a clothing manufacturer in Newark with 120 employees, said. "Secure workers earning a living wage are productive workers...

By Maddie Hanna
Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov 5, 2013

Increasing New Jersey's minimum wage now and through annual cost-of-living raises will help workers and boost the economy. Or it will force businesses to increase prices and cut hours, hurting consumers and workers. Through radio ads, pamphlets, and news conferences, dueling campaigns are trying to reach voters about a ballot question that would amend the state constitution to increase the minimum wage by $1, to $8.25 an hour, and tie future increases to the Consumer Price Index. ...

If the measure passes, New Jersey will join 18 states...

By Andrew George
NJBiz, Oct 29, 2013

Both supporters and opponents of a constitutional amendment to raise the state's minimum wage by $1 to $8.25 have just a week left to make their cases before voters decide its fate through an Election Day ballot question. ... 

Today, the New Jersey Main Street Alliance released its version of the story with a web-only video featuring the testimony of several small business owners who claim that not only is raising the minimum wage the right thing to do, but it's also the financially smart decision.

"It's unconscionable...

By Matt Friedman
NJ Star Ledger, Oct 29, 2013 

A coalition campaigning for an increase in the minimum wage is pushing back against claims by business groups that it will hurt the economy with an ad that features testimonials from small business owners.

“Your employees are the things that make your shop go,” Adam Woods, the owner of Camden Printworks, says in the one minute and 20 second internet-only video produced by the liberal Main Street Alliance.

Mohammud Chowdhury, the owner of Beauty Plus in New Brunswick, chimes in “if they have more money, they...