BFMW In the News

Delaware Live: Will minimum wage hike to $15 help banish poverty or destroy business?

By Betsy Price
Delaware Live, March 17, 2021

It was a tale of two minimum wage hikes Wednesday during a hearing on a bill that would raise Delaware’s to $15 an hour by 2025.

Those in favor of the bill said raising it from $9.25 an hour would raise tens of thousands of Delawareans out of poverty, including a large number of women and minorities; help businesses thrive because higher wages means less turnover; and prevent workers from taking jobs in nearby states where minimum already is above Delaware’s. ...

For

Delaware State News: Minimum wage bill released from Delaware Senate committee after lengthy hearing

By Matt Bittle
Delaware State News, March 17, 2021

DOVER — The Delaware Senate is set to vote Thursday on legislation raising the state’s minimum wage from $9.25 to $15 in phases, after passing it through committee Wednesday. ...

Forty-four members of the public spoke on the bill in the two-hour Senate Labor Committee meeting, with a majority favoring passage. ...

Alissa Barron-Menza, vice president of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, noted that a federal minimum wage was first enacted during the Great Depression in the 1930s to help spark economic growth.

Delaware Business Times: Minimum wage hike advances to Senate vote

By Taylor Goebel
Delaware Business Times, March 17, 2021

DOVER – Delaware is one step closer to raising its hourly minimum wage to $15 by 2025, after the Senate Labor Committee cleared Senate Bill 15 on Wednesday afternoon. ...

Ecolistic Cleaning owner Courtney Sunborn said during the meeting that all employees at her Lewes location will be making at least $15 by the end of 2021. None of them currently make below $14.50.

Sunborn, who began her cleaning service company 19 years ago, said paying a livable wage is “good for business.”

Cape Gazette: Minimum wage bill returns in Delaware

By Melissa Steele
Cape Gazette,  March 12, 2021

... In a press conference March 8, Sen. Jack Walsh, D-Stanton, said raising the minimum wage is about giving workers a living wage. “Somebody who puts in a full day of work should be able to put a roof over their heads,” he said. “They deserve our help in lifting them out of poverty.” ...

The bill proposes to incrementally increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2025.

NPR: The Complexities Of Raising The Minimum Wage On The Retail Industry

By Alina Selyukh
NPR Morning Edition, March 8, 2021

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: NPR's Alina Selyukh talked with a lot of different business owners about a possible $15 minimum wage. And she got a whole lot of different opinions. ...

ASHRAF HIJAZ: People will spend the money when they have it.

SELYUKH: Ashraf Hijaz has about 150 workers at about two dozen beauty supply and furniture stores around the South. His starting pay is about $9 an hour. But Hijaz advocates for the $15 minimum because it would affect most of his shoppers.

WGMD: Coalition Rounds Up Support For Del. Minimum Wage Hike

By Mark Fowser
WGMD, Delmarva, March 8, 2021

Supporters of a movement to increase Delaware’s minimum wage spoke as one Monday in favor of raising it to $15 an hour within a few years, and to dispel messages against it they say are not true.

Senator Jack Walsh (D- Stanton) has submitted a bill that would increase the minimum wage from its current level of $9.25 to ... $15 per hour in 2025.

Represented Monday were the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 27, SEIU 32BJ, Delaware Working Families Party, and Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. ...

WDEL News Radio: Gathering support for a state minimum wage increase

By Mike Phillips
WDEL News Radio, Mar 8, 2021

... State Senator Jack Walsh (D-Stanton) said he intends to file legislation this session that would raise the minimum wage in Delaware to $15 an hour by the middle of the decade. ...

Courtney Sunborn, who owns Lewes-based Ecolistic Cleaning, believes maintaining a living wage benefits both workers and the business.

"We've seen that it increases both employee commitment and reliability, but it decreases turnover," she said. ...

WHYY (NPR): Delaware lawmakers renew push for $15 minimum wage

By Zoë Read
WHYY, NPR, March 8, 2021

A coalition of business groups and politicians spoke Monday during a virtual event in favor of a $15 minimum wage in Delaware.

Legislation introduced by Sen. Jack Walsh would gradually increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. ... “Someone who puts in a hard day’s work deserves to earn enough to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. Frankly, they deserve what previous generations of low-wage earners have had — a living wage,” Walsh said during the event. ...

Wall Street Journal: Many Businesses Support a Minimum-Wage Increase

By Eric Morath and Heather Haddon
Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2021

A debate to raise the federal minimum wage has tied Congress in knots, but many large employers and business groups wouldn’t mind an increase. ...

Costco Chief Executive Craig Jelinek told Congress at a hearing last week that the retailer was raising starting pay to $16 an hour and that hourly employees are paid an average of $24 an hour. Costco has about 180,000 full-time and part-time U.S. employees.