BFMW In the News

Op-Ed By Gina Schaefer
Baltimore Business Journal, March 21, 2018

By Michelle Shvimer
Daily Free Press, March 21, 2018

Nearly 300 people gathered to spread a message to their legislators demanding job-protected paid leave and a $15 minimum wage at Boston’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral Tuesday night. ...

Raise Up MA members and supporters counteracted the idea that teenagers should be exempt from the rise in minimum wage during the meeting.

Michael Kanter, the co-founder of Cambridge Naturals, a retail health store, said he is against the idea of a lower minimum wage for teenagers.

By Steven H. Foskett Jr. 
Worcester Telegram & Gazette, March 20, 2018

Columbus Radio Group, March 14, 2018

COLUMBUS – Democratic lawmakers want to give Ohio’s lowest-paid workers a raise, though the proposal faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Statehouse. The legislators, flanked by workers’ advocates and progressive policy experts, announced a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage in 50-cent-an-hour steps to $15 per hour over the next seven years. ...

Fall River Reporter, March 11, 2018

New Bedford, MA – South Coast legislators were met with a message Saturday from the voters gathered at the Carney Academy in New Bedford for a Fall River/New Bedford briefing on paid leave and a $15 minimum wage: “Pass These Bills!” ...

By Carlos Marquina, March 7, 2018

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland—In a hearing before the House Economic Matters Committee, supporters of a proposed hike in Maryland’s minimum wage argued that the current rate leaves hundreds of thousands of the state’s working families trapped in a cycle of poverty. ...

Story includes Gina Schaefer, owner, A Few Cool Hardware Stores

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By Adam Uzialko
Business.com, Feb 27, 2018

Don't just think of paying more than minimum wage as an expense. It can be an investment in the overall health of your business.

The federal minimum wage, and those mandated by states and localities, represents a requirement for the floor for payment that employers must offer. However, the minimum wage does not always line up with the cost of living in a given area, nor do real wages necessarily rise with productivity or profits.

By Hank Kalet
NJ Spotlight, Feb 26, 2018

Backers say the benefits of higher minimum wage would benefit both workers and small businesses

By  Reggie Fullwood 
Jacksonville Free Press, Feb 20, 2018

... We live in the greatest country in the world – a job should be a bridge out of poverty, an opportunity to a make a living from the work or services you provide. But for minimum wage workers, especially those with families, it is not. ...

And for those who think that raising the minimum wage is bad for the economy – that’s nonsense. A number of researchers have found that modestly higher minimum wages can raise incomes for low-wage workers without reducing the number of jobs in the area.

Op-Ed by Holly Sklar
Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb 9, 2018

This month marks a golden anniversary for wages, but it’s not a happy occasion.

When the federal minimum wage went up 50 years ago in February 1968, it turned out to be the high point in minimum-wage purchasing power for Pennsylvania workers.

Adjusted for the cost of living, the buying power of 1968’s minimum wage of $1.60 an hour is worth $11.53 in today’s dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Inflation Calculator.

By Matt Heckel
ABC 27 News, Feb 5, 2018

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — A push continues at the state Capitol for Pennsylvania to raise the minimum wage. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage currently is $7.25 an hour. Senate Bill 1044 would raise it to $15 an hour over the next six years. ...

John Traynor, the owner of Harrisburg’s Midtown Arts Center, says he currently starts employees at $12 an hour, and it helps the entire community.

Op-Ed By Holly Sklar, CEO, Business for a Fair Minimum Wage
...In February 1968, the federal minimum wage increased to $1.60 an hour, giving minimum wage workers what would turn out to be the highest level of purchasing power they would enjoy for the next 50 years. ...

By Scott Dance
The Baltimore Sun, Jan 15, 2018

A coalition of Democrats, union leaders and workers launched a campaign to raise Maryland’s minimum hourly wage to $15 on Monday, saying they chose to do so on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to carry on his message of justice and fairness.

By Bob Stephens
Colorado Springs Business Journal, January 5, 2018

Controversy surrounded Colorado’s minimum wage increase even before it passed in the November 2016 election, and that hasn’t changed more than a year later as local business owners remain divided on the subject. About 55 percent of Colorado voters were in favor of Amendment 70, which incrementally raises the state’s minimum wage from $8.31 in 2016 to $12 by 2020. ...

By Meg Bantle
The Valley Advocate, Jan 2, 2018

... For labor activists, 2018 could be the year they get a measure for a $15 minimum wage before Massachusetts voters, which would mean the state would join California and New York, which have already passed $15 minimum wage legislation. ...

Some business owners in the Pioneer Valley and beyond support the minimum wage increase and have already started to make adjustments internally to afford the added cost.