BFMW In the News

By Shira Schoenberg
Springfield Republican/MassLive, Sept 20, 2017

Michael Kanter, the owner of Cambridge Naturals, a health and wellness store in Cambridge, raised his minimum wage to $15 an hour last December.

"Not only is it valuable for the people who will be getting that raise, but it's also valuable for our business," Kanter said. "It helps with employee retention, employee enthusiasm, customers get excited."

Greater Boston with Jim Braude
WGBH TV, Sept 20, 2017

It worked before and now, minimum wage activists are hoping it will work again. In 2014, Massachusetts lawmakers approved a measure to gradually raise the minimum wage. But they did it under pressure. If the lawmakers didn’t act, there was a ballot question ready to go, which would have let the people decide.

By Andy Metzger
State House News Service, Sept 20, 2017

BOSTON -- A debate over adequate worker compensation that was waged before a legislative committee Tuesday and could be headed to the ballot next November has pitted two struggling groups against one another. ...

By Elisha Machado
WWLP-22News, September 19, 2017

BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP) – A state proposal calls for raising the minimum wage in Massachusetts. Lawmakers heard from the public on a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. 

Minimum wage workers shared their stories with lawmakers on the state’s Committee on Labor and Workforce Development of working two to three jobs just to make ends meet. They’re calling on lawmakers to pass a bill that would gradually raise the minimum wage from $11 to $15 per hour by 2021. ...

Boston Neighborhood Network News, Sept 19, 2017

"Workers, advocates at State House back higher minimum wage" segment includes Rob Everts, Co-CEO, Equal Exchange.

WATCH on YouTube

WATCH Original Segment 1:12 - 3:20

By Bob Salsberg
Associated Press (AP), Sept 19, 2017

Backers of a drive to gradually boost the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour told a legislative committee on Tuesday that many people who work full time at their jobs still live in poverty and struggle to support their families.

The group Raise Up Massachusetts is collecting signatures to put a $15 minimum wage proposal before voters on the November 2018 ballot if the Legislature does not act on a bill during its current two-year session.

By Katie Johnston
Boston Globe, September 19, 2017

Supporters of a statewide $15 hourly minimum wage packed a State House hearing Tuesday afternoon, testifying that a pay hike would not only help workers support their families, but would stimulate the local economy by giving workers more money to spend. ...

By Kate Rogers
CNBC, Aug 22, 2017

At Panther Coffee in Miami, no worker is paid under $10 an hour. In fact, including tips, entry-level employees take home about $15 an hour on average, well above the state's minimum of $8.10 an hour. Husband-wife owners Joel and Leticia Pollock say lower wages just aren't an option if they want to be successful.

By Peter Romeo
Restaurant Business, Aug. 15, 2017

With shoulder-length hair, a bushy beard, the lankiness of a street messiah and the clothing to match, Michael Lastoria looks more like the lead from “Jesus Christ Superstar” than CEO of a pizza chain aiming to stretch capitalism’s possibilities. ...

By Will Ashworth
The Motley Fool, July 31, 2017

... A living wage is good business

The idea of a living wage is not going away. We were not returning to the beginning of the industrial revolution when child labour was a common practice.

Loblaw is not a small business. It’s a giant food conglomerate controlled by one of Canada’s richest families. I doubt any of the Westons have trouble paying for their grocery bills at Loblaw, but many in-store employees probably do.

Op-Ed By John Traynor
Scranton Times Tribune, July 30, 2017

Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is stuck in the past and that’s bad for business. Set at $7.25 an hour since 2009, Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is lower than all six of our neighboring states.

Our state minimum wage, which amounts to just $15,080 a year for full-time work, is a drag on Pennsylvania’s customer base, tax base and economy.

Op-Ed By Greg Kelly
State Journal Register, July 28, 2017

In a recent online article from WCIA-TV titled “Rauner pays new staff lucrative salaries,” the governor said Illinois citizens “owe” his highly-paid staff “a debt of gratitude.” He’s dead wrong. Gov. Bruce Rauner owes our families a $15 minimum wage. ...

Op-Ed By Chris Lu
As the Deputy Secretary of Labor, I saw not only how higher wages lifted up the lives of working-class Americans but also how employers thrived when they paid higher wages. ...

By Elizabeth Crips
The Advocate (Baton Rouge), July 23, 2017. Also in Daily Comet, Houma Courier.

Kenya Harris recalls taking the city bus from classes at Baton Rouge Community College to her minimum wage job at a fast food restaurant off Sherwood Forest across town — changing into her uniform in the restaurant's bathroom each day. ... With two young children at home, Harris quit college and was working two jobs, as a telemarketer in the day and again in fast food in the evenings. "It crippled me as far as time away from my kids," she said.

By Cameron Niblock
San Angelo Live, July 22, 2017

U.S. – Business owners across the nation are coming together in support of increasing the federal minimum wage in the U.S.

July 24 will mark eight years since the federal minimum wage was last increased, according to the Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. Since 2009, the federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25, which is worth less than it was in 1950, adjusted for the cost of living.