BFMW In the News

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Bethany Budde-Cohen: Raising minimum wage helps businesses, communities thrive

By Bethany Budde-Cohen, Owner, SqWires Restaurant & Annex
Letter to the Editor, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Oct 16, 2018

The commentary “Minimum wage hike will lead to unintended consequences” (Oct. 8) by a fellow at the Show-Me Institute tries to mask hostility to a minimum wage law, which it calls “an artificially imposed floor price,” by claiming that raising the minimum wage to $12 by 2023 under Proposition B will cost jobs and “harm the very people” it’s “supposed to benefit.” As a business owner, I can tell you that’s not true.

United Press International (UPI): Voters in many states to decide on marijuana, abortion, minimum wage

United Press International (UPI), Oct. 16, 2018

From marijuana in the Midwest to abortion and minimum wage in the South, voters across the United States have more than just hotly contested congressional races to consider in next month’s midterm election. ... Here are some of the highlights. ...

Minimum wage

While there are nationwide campaigns to raise the United States’ minimum wage to $15, two states in the South have ballot measures to raise theirs to a shorter extent.

Jefferson City News Tribune: Minimum wage proposal divides businesses

By Philip Joens
Jefferson City News Tribune, October 11, 2018

A proposal to raise Missouri's minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2023 is dividing businesses. ...

Not all businesses oppose Proposition B. More than 450 business representatives signed a list supporting Proposition B, according to Businesses For a Fair Minimum Wage, a group of business owners that support the measure.

CNBC: Main Street groups wary of Amazon's $15 per hour wages

CNBC, Oct 2, 2018

CNBC's Kate Rogers reports on the minimum wage impact Amazon is having on small businesses after it raised its minimum wages for U.S. workers. 

Quotes Business for a Fair Minimum Wage Statement: "All businesses, big and small, should pay a wage that workers can live on. It's way past time to raise the impoverishing $7.25 federal minimum wage, strengthen consumer demand, and help level the playing field among businesses."

NJBIZ: $15 minimum wage would boost state economy

By Daniel J. Munoz
NJBIZ, October 2, 2018

The increase of a minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2023 could inject $3.9 billion in the state’s economy through a rise of the consumption power for over 1 million residents, according to a report by the advocacy group New Jersey Policy Perspective.

Jefferson City News Tribune: Bob Goodrich: Movie theater owner spotlights benefits of raising minimum wage

Op-Ed By Bob Goodrich
Jefferson City News Tribune, Oct 2, 2018. Also in the Fulton Sun.

Movie theaters have been our family business since my father opened a single-screen theater in 1930 with a showing of “All Quiet on the Western Front.” I bought my father’s theater in 1967, and expanded Goodrich Quality Theaters to five states, including Capital 8 in Jefferson City. We couldn’t have done it without great employees and generations of moviegoers coming through our doors.

Kansas City Star: ‘You can’t make enough with minimum wage’: What does it take to get by in Missouri?

By Allison Kite
Kansas City Star, Missouri Influencer Series, Oct 1, 2018

It’s been years since Desiree Saunders earned the minimum wage...but the child nutrition worker at Kansas City Public Schools said she constantly sees students whose families struggle because their parents earn Missouri’s minimum wage. ... Missouri’s minimum wage is $7.85 per hour, but an initiative petition on the November ballot would raise it to $12 per hour. ...

Arkansas Democrat Gazette: Arkansas governor, lieutenant governor signal opposition to minimum wage ballot issue

By Michael R. Wickline
Arkansas Democrat Gazette, September 26, 2018

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin said Tuesday they plan to vote against a proposed initiated act that would raise the state's minimum wage by $2.50 an hour to $11 an hour by 2021. These two Republicans signaled their opposition to Issue 5 on the Nov. 6 general election ballot in separate written statements, after supporters of the proposed ballot measure held a news conference Tuesday morning at Trio's restaurant in Little Rock as a kick-off event.

KATV ABC 7 (AR): Group hoping to increase minimum wage continues campaign despite legal limbo

By Marine Glisovic

KATV ABC 7, Little Rock, September 25, 2018

If approved by Arkansas voters, minimum wage earners could see another $2.50 an hour by 2021. A group hoping to increase the minimum wage kicked off an awareness campaign on Tuesday. While Arkansans For a Fair Wage hopes to educate voters, Issue 5 remains in legal limbo after a lawsuit was filed to remove the question from the November ballot. ... During Tuesday’s press conference, several supporters voiced their reasons as to why Arkansans should approve increasing the minimum wage to $11 an hour. ...

St. Louis American: Editorial: The American endorses a YES vote on Proposition B

... Among the most impactful initiatives on the ballot statewide on November 6 is Proposition B, which would raise the state’s minimum wage to $12 by 2023. The initiative would increase Missouri’s minimum wage from its current rate of $7.85 an hour to $8.60 next year, and then increase it gradually each year until it reaches $12 an hour in 2023. “The increase to $12 phases in gradually, giving low-paying businesses time to adjust and experience the benefits of a rising minimum wage – such as increased consumer spending, cost savings from lower employee turnover, increased productivity, and happier customers,” said Pam Hausner, owner of Big Vision Design in Kansas City and business campaign manager for Missouri Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. ...