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Philly Voice: Critics: Wolf's minimum wage raise for state employees 'symbolic gesture'

By Daniel Craig
Philly Voice, March 7, 2016

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order Monday to raise the minimum wage for state employees from $7.25 to $10.15 ... He also calls on legislators to help him implement a similar raise for all employees in Pennsylvania, something he said would help 1.2 million workers. ... Media reports have noted that the Republican-controlled legislature has shown no indication it is willing to increase the minimum wage for all state residents.

Wolf's announcement includes a quote from John Traynor, the owner of the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center, who supports increasing the minimum wage for...

Finger Lakes Daily News: Cuomo Gains Business Support for $15 Minimum Wage

By Fred von Wiegen
Finger Lakes Daily News, March 3, 2016

Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that more than 85 New York businesses [and business organizations] have endorsed his proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15. The businesses comprise small and large companies from all across the state. They agree with Cuomo's argument that the higher wage will raise the standard of living and result in economic growth. ...

Cuomo says employers who pay their workers the minimum wage are actually being subsidized by taxpayers to the tune of about $7000 in public assistance...

Denver Business Journal: Ballot initiatives would hike Colorado's minimum wage

By Ed Sealover
Denver Business Journal, Feb 18, 2016

Business leaders shot down several attempts at the Legislature last year to raise Colorado’s minimum wage. ... Colorado Families for a Fair Wage — a newly formed group that organizers say is composed of low-wage workers and small-business owners — filed two proposed constitutional amendments with the Secretary of State’s office on Thursday that would raise workers’ minimum hourly pay to $12 over the next four years.

Both would bump the state minimum wage, now $8.31 an hour, to $9.30 at the start of 2017 and then increase...

CBS4 News: New Push On To Raise Colorado’s Minimum Wage To $12 An Hour By 2020

By Matt Kroschel
CBS4 News (Denver), Feb 18, 2016

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DENVER (CBS4) – Supporters of a push to increase the minimum wage statewide say $12 by 2020 is not unreasonable. ...

[S]upporters like Richard Correa, who owns an insurance agency in Colorado, says he supports the effort because he thinks it's just the right thing to do.

“This is a no-brainer, we should be helping our workers to be able to take care of their families and with the cost of living increases, this needs to happen,” Correa said.

A group called Colorado Families for a Fair Wage...

Daily Sentinel (CO): New ballot measure proposes $12 an hour minimum wage

By Charles Ashby
The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction, CO), Feb 18, 2016

A group that wants to raise the state’s minimum wage filed a proposed ballot measure with the state Thursday to do just that. The group, which called itself Colorado Families for a Fair Wage, filed two proposed citizen’s initiatives that call for raising the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020. The current minimum wage is $8.31.

“Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense,” Richard Correa, owner of Correa Insurance Agency on the Front Range, said in a news release. “Workers will...

Durango Herald: Ballot proposal filed to raise Colorado minimum wage

By Peter Marcus
Durango Herald, Feb 18, 2016

DENVER – A ballot proposal to raise the minimum wage in Colorado was filed on Thursday. The effort comes just a day after Republicans in the state Legislature blocked an effort to allow local governments to raise wages in their counties. ...

Colorado Families for a Fair Wage has proposed gradually increasing the state minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020. ... Full-time workers make $8.31 an hour under the state’s minimum wage, about $17,000 per year. Proponents say the wage has not kept up with cost-of-living increases. ...

“Raising...

CNBC: Some good news from the little guys: Main Street plans to hire

By Heesun Wee
CNBC, Jan 12, 2016

As the broad U.S. economy finished 2015 with a big round of job creation, more pockets of Main Street are feeling optimistic about near-term prospects and planning to add new positions. ...

For now, small-business owners planning to hire include Gina Schaefer. She's co-owner of nine Ace Hardware stores in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Schaefer has plans to open two more locations in the new year and has recently hired about a dozen new workers, with plans to bring on about 12 more.

"The mood has gotten...

Entrepreneur: The Minimum Wage Battle Is Here to Stay

By Jason Daley
Entrepreur Magazine, January 9, 2016

Last April, the city of Seattle began rolling out an incremental minimum-wage increase. Employers with 500 workers or fewer would bump hourly wages up to $15 over the course of seven years; larger businesses would have to reach the mark in three years, with an immediate raise to $11 per hour. (The federal minimum wage is $7.25.) It has been a controversial law on many fronts, but no more so than in the franchise world. For the purposes of the law, any franchised business is considered a...

Providence Journal: Richard Correa: Raising minimum wage is smart business and politics

By Richard Correa
Providence Journal, Jan. 5, 2016

On Jan. 1, Rhode Island raised its minimum wage to $9.60. Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense whether you are a Republican, Democrat or independent. It should not be a partisan issue.

Across the political spectrum, voters strongly support raising the federal minimum wage. This includes 77 percent of Republicans, 87 percent of independents and 97 percent of Democrats, according to a recent poll by McLaughlin & Associates and Oxfam America.

Raising the minimum wage is a personal issue for me. I grew up in a...