BFMW In the News

By Christian M. Wade, Statehouse Reporter
Salem News/North of Boston Media Group, Dec 31, 2018. Also in Eagle Tribune, Gloucester Daily Times, more

Wages will be rising for hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers in Massachusetts in the New Year, with the first of five annual increases bumping up the state's minimum wage to $12 per hour beginning Tuesday. ... This year's increase is the first of several annual hikes that will bring the state's wage floor up to $15 per hour by 2023. ...

Still, some business groups say hiking the minimum wage is not only the right thing to do, it also makes economic sense.

"It leads to more spending at every level, from purchases of food and school supplies, to rent and car repairs, to the occasional meal out with the family," said Holly Sklar, CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a national advocacy group. "Minimum wage increases also pay off for businesses in lower employee turnover, reduced hiring and training costs, lower error rates, increased productivity and better customer service.” ...

By Shahla Farzan
St. Louis Public Radio, Dec 30, 2018

The new year means an increase to Missouri's minimum wage ... Starting Jan. 1, the minimum wage will increase from $7.85 an hour to $8.60. The raise comes after voters approved Proposition B in November, which calls for boosting the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2023. ...

St. Louis business owner Joe Edwards, who supports the higher wage, said it’s important to him to treat workers with “respect and consideration.”

Athol Daily News, Dec 28, 2018

BOSTON – On January 1, 2019, 662,000 low-wage workers in Massachusetts will get a raise when the state’s minimum wage rises from $11 to $12 an hour, the first of five annual increases laid out in legislation passed this spring that will bring the minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2023. Also on January 1, the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers will rise from $3.75 to $4.35 an hour. ...

By Jordan Larimore
Joplin Globe, Dec 27, 2018

As of next Tuesday, Missouri is set to become one of the more than one-third of states to have raised the minimum wage in the past calendar year. Voters in Missouri and Arkansas approved increases in the states' minimum wages in November, and as many as 18 others have passed either ballot initiatives or bills to do the same.

WHDH-TV 7 News, Dec. 26, 2018

BOSTON (WHDH) - The lowest-paid workers in Massachusetts have something to look forward to in 2019: a higher minimum wage. Come Jan. 1, more than 650,000 workers across the Bay State will make at least $12 per hour. Wages will jump to $15 per hour by 2023. ...

Jackson Renshaw, the owner of Dorchester’s Fresh Food Generation, says his company has benefitted from starting employees out at $12 per hour.

By Katie Lannan
State House News Service, Dec 26, 2018

Fifteen percent of working parents in Massachusetts and 19 percent of children in the state will be affected by the $1 minimum wage increase that takes effect next week, according to a new analysis. The Jan. 1, 2019 hike from $11 hourly to $12, part of a multi-year phased-in increase to $15 an hour, will benefit 662,000 workers, for a total wage increase of $817.5 million, according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. ...

By State House News Service
Worcester Business Journal, Dec 26, 2018

Fifteen percent of working parents in Massachusetts and 19 percent of children in the state will be affected by the $1 minimum wage increase that takes effect next week, according to a new analysis. The Jan. 1, 2019 hike from $11 hourly to $12, part of a multi-year phased-in increase to $15 an hour, will benefit 662,000 workers, for a total wage increase of $817.5 million, according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. ...

By Katie Johnston
Boston Globe, Dec 26, 2018

At Salon Herdis in Northampton, the employees are getting a special New Year’s bonus: a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour, up from $11. ...

Massachusetts is one of 20 states raising its minimum wage Jan. 1. At $12, it will be the highest in the nation, along with California’s and Washington state’s. In Massachusetts, the minimum will go up gradually every year until it hits $15 in 2023. Meantime, the federal minimum, still in place in 21 states, remains at $7.25.

By Shira Schoenberg
Springfield Republican/ MassLive.com, Dec. 24, 2018

The minimum wage in Massachusetts will increase to $12 an hour on Jan. 1. ... Gov. Charlie Baker in June signed the so-called “grand bargain,” a bill prompted by several proposed ballot questions that will gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, phase out Sunday premium pay, establish a paid family and medical leave program and implement a permanent sales tax holiday one weekend a year. ...

By William Westhoven
Daily Record (NJ), Dec. 12, 2018

As the Legislature debates a proposal to slowly raise the state minimum wage to $15 per hour, Gov. Phil Murphy toured a local business that says starting employees at $17 per hour is a big part of their 30-year history of success.

"If people are going to show up, and be productive, and be committed and really deliver the highest-quality products, you need to make sure to pay a living wage," said Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, CEO of Earth Friendly Products.

ROI-NJ, Dec 12, 2018

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks doesn’t need to be convinced about the benefits of a $15 minimum wage for one simple reason: She pays more.

And she said she sees the benefits.

Vlahakis-Hanks, the CEO and president of Earth Friendly Products, a manufacturer that makes more than 200 green cleaning products at its Parsippany plant, said the company’s investment in its employees has been fundamental to its success for more than three decades.

TAPinto, December 12, 2018

PARSIPPANY, NJ - Mayor Michael Soriano joined Governor Murphy at Parsippany Based, Earth Friendly Products to express their support for a $15 minimum wage.  Earth Friendly Products has offered $17/hour as a minimum wage at their company for all employees since 2014.  The company was used as an example for how all business should be run. ...

Read more

By John Reitmeyer
NJ Spotlight, Dec 12, 2018

Gov. Phil Murphy and Democratic leaders remain divided over key issues, including the number of workers who’d have to wait longer for the increase ...

The bill put forward by [Assembly Speaker Craig] Coughlin last week would also bring the minimum wage gradually to $15, with an initial hike to $9.50 on July 1, 2019. The rate would then go up to $11 on January 1, 2020 and be increased by $1.15 each subsequent year until it reached $15 in 2024.

By Daniel J. Munoz
NJBIZ, Dec. 12, 2018

Gov. Phil Murphy said he's “open-minded” and confident about finding “common ground” as he and lawmakers hash out a bill that would raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Speaking Tuesday after a tour of the Earth Friendly Products factory in Parsippany, Murphy decried several aspects of a bill Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-19th District, put on the table last week to raise the minimum wage. ...

By Frank L. Cahill
Parsippany Focus, Dec 11, 2018