BFMW In the News

By Taylor Tosheff, Avery Van Etten
ABC27 WHTM (Harrisburg, PA), Oct 28, 2022

October is National Women’s Small Business Month. Although the month is almost over, people can support women-owned businesses year-round.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, there are more than 13 million women-owned businesses and counting. In 2019, women-owned businesses represented 42% of all U.S. businesses and generated $1.9 trillion of revenue.

Jennie Groff is part owner of Lancaster Sweet Shoppe and Stroopies. Stroopies has an all-women team and employs resettled refugee women living in Lancaster City.

While making the Stroopies — a Dutch stroopwafel — the women are also offered English classes as part of the paid workday. ...

By Pat Caveye
Norfolk News Radio (WJAG 780AM/105.9FM, KQKX 106 KIX, KEXL 97.5FM), Oct 26, 2022

As the election is less than two weeks away, one topic Nebraskans will get to decide is if they want to approve the gradual minimum wage increase to $15 an hour by 2026.

... nearly 300 small business owners and executives have voiced their support for the pay increase.

Wild Bird Habitat store owner Dave Titterington says small businesses need to move their employees out of the expense column and into the investment column, as they are the first people guests meet when entering their business.

By Matt Olberding
Lincoln Journal Star, Oct 25, 2022. Also Grand Island Independent, Scottsbluff Star Herald, North Platte Telegraph, Kearney Hub, Columbus Telegram, Fremont Tribune, Beatrice Daily Sun, York News Times, Sioux City Journal, more

There's disagreement over whether gradually raising Nebraska's minimum wage from its current $9 an hour to $15 an hour is a good thing. ...

Nebraska Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a coalition of more than 300 business owners and executives, has come out strongly in support of the $15 minimum wage.

Nearly 300 Nebraska business owners and executives across the state have gone on record in support of ballot Initiative 433, which would gradually raise Nebraska's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026.

By Erin Bamer
Omaha World Herald, Oct 23, 2022

LINCOLN — Karen Anthony has worked as a home health care provider for 40 years, and in that time she has never earned more than $12 an hour. Her wages aren’t enough to allow her to afford everyday essentials like a car or even groceries. ... Anthony shared her story at the Nebraska State Capitol this past week during a public hearing on a ballot initiative to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. ...

Supporters also argue that increasing pay would encourage workers to put their money right back into the economy, ...

By  Rebecca Heckel
KLKN-TV (8 ABC), Oct 19, 2022

Nebraskans have a chance to raise the minimum wage on Nov. 8, but the ballot initiative has raised concerns about small businesses not being able to afford it. ... But many small businesses in Lincoln have stood in support of the increase, saying it will make the job market more competitive.

“People want to work in a place that feeds their soul as well as their stomachs,” said Cinnamon Dokken, owner of A Novel Idea Bookstore. “It’s essential that they’re able to put food on the tables. This will allow them to do that, and be able to have a greater range of choices of where to work.”

By Owen Reimer
Nebraska News Service, Oct 19, 2022 

A ballot initiative to incrementally raise the Nebraska minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026 stirred debate in the 1st Congressional District’s focused hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at the state capitol. The testimonies were largely in favor of increasing the wage. ...

Some of the testifying proponents, however, were business owners who felt the minimum wage increase would be beneficial, including for improving employee morale.

Cinnamon Dokken, owner of A Novel Idea Bookstore in Lincoln, said she could not get wages as high as she would like without a statewide raise to boost the economy.

By Jack Price
Nebraska News Service, Oct 16, 2022

... Some small businesses in Nebraska have already found success paying their employees higher wages. Wild Bird Habitat Stores, Mana Games and Shirts 101 all start their employees at $15 an hour. 

In October, RAYGUN Clothing, which employs 110 people in locations in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska, will join them. For Mike Draper, the owner and founder, raising his company’s starting wage is common sense.

Draper said the minimum wage is an oddity in the United States because unlike cost of living expenses, taxable income levels or even social security benefits, the minimum wage has remained “frozen in time.”

By Tony Herrman
Hastings Tribune, Oct 15, 2022 

Nebraska voters will act on a ballot measure that proposes a step-by-step program to increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by Jan. 1, 2026. ...

Kate Wolfe, campaign manager for Raise the Wage Nebraska, spoke in favor of Initiative 433, as did Small Town Famous owner Jacque Cranson, during a Hastings League of Women Voters forum Friday at the YWCA of Adams County. ...

Cranson and her husband, Matt, own Small Town Famous screen print and embroidery business. There is also a boutique in the front of store. Small Town Famous has locations in Hastings and Grand Island.

She supports raising the minimum wage.

By Sean MacKinnon
KETV Omaha (7 ABC), Oct 14, 2022

In a joint statement today, over 300 Nebraska business owners came forward in favor of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

They say if employees get paid more, they'll also spend more as consumers. Business owners fr0m Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Hastings and North Platte spoke out.

Dave Titterington, owner of Wild Bird Habitat store, says employees should be rewarded for good customer service.

"If you invest in your employees, you're going to have customers come in that are satisfied. You're going to have repeat customers and they're going to tell your friends, family and neighbors and that will draw more business into your location," Titterington said.

By Talmon Joseph Smith
New York Times, Oct. 14, 2022

With Americans resuming prepandemic habits of going out, eating out and traveling, leisure and hospitality businesses have scrambled to hire, sometimes offering pay increases that outpace inflation. But for many whose pay is linked to tips, like restaurant servers and bartenders, base wages remain low, and collecting what is owed under the law can be a struggle. ...

Some employers who could use the two-tier wage system are taking a different approach.

By: Isabella Basco
KMTV Omaha (CBS 3), Oct 14, 2022

If you're earning minimum wage, you could see more money in your pocket by 2026. A Nebraska ballot initiative would gradually raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour by then.

While hundreds of business owners and executives support the measure, that's not the case for everyone.

Amelia Rosser owns Sheelytown Market, which is an Omaha plant nursery. She also cares for her employees the way she cares for the greenery.

"My business would only be right if I'm profitable and I'm paying people right and I'm taking care of my people," Rosser said.

By Matt Brown
KETV Omaha (7 ABC) Omaha, Oct 11, 2022

Nebraska initiative 433 would raise the state's minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 an hour by 2026. Some business owners, like Amelia Rosser, the owner of Sheelytown Market Garden, say a higher minimum wage would help businesses keep employees.

"I don't want turnover," Rosser said. "I want to have the people here who also want to be doing this forever and working right alongside me in a partnership."

While Rosser is already paying her employees $15 an hour, she hopes voters pass initiative 433. ...

In a public hearing at University of Nebraska Omaha, supporters and opponents made their case. ...

By Ryan Lynch
Orlando Business Journal, Oct 6, 2022

Orlando residents saw a bump on average to their average weekly pay when compared to a year ago. ...

Increased wages come as the state's hourly minimum wage grew from $10 to $11 on Sept. 30. The minimum wage for tipped employees also increased at the end of last month, from $6.98 to $7.98 per hour.

Florida citizens voted to raise the minimum wage in 2020 to $15 an hour by 2026, with a dollar increase per year. Some groups, like the Florida Business for a Fair Minimum Wage coalition, have said that was good for business, including Jared Meyers, who owns Legacy Vacation Resorts in Orlando, Kissimmee, Palm Coast and Indian Shores.

By Anna Jean Kaiser
Miami Herald, Sep 29, 2022

Florida’s minimum wage will increase to $11 an hour on Friday, the second boost in a series of annual raises that will eventually bring it to $15 an hour. The pay raise is a result of an amendment to the Florida Constitution that 61% of voters approved in a 2020 ballot measure. ...

Some business associations fought the change ... while others campaigned for it. Jennifer Todd, the owner of LMS General Contractors based in Pompano Beach, is a member of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a national coalition of business owners that campaigns for minimum wage increases. Todd has 10 employees and said she welcomes the increase. ...