Over 1,100 Signers including • Costco • Eileen Fisher • Ben & Jerry's • Stonyfield • Dansko • South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce • New Belgium Brewing • Seventh Generation • Organic Valley • Zingerman's • Pi Pizzeria • Parnassus Investments • ECOS • American Sustainable Business Council • Greater NY Chamber of Commerce • Main Street Alliance • ABC Home • Dr. Bronner's • Natl. Latino Farmers & Ranchers Trade Assoc • Green Business Network • American Income Life • Uncommon Goods • Statement sponsored by Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.
See LIST OF SIGNERS BY STATE. 

As business owners and executives, we support raising the federal minimum wage to strengthen our economy. The minimum wage of $7.25 an hour amounts to just $15,080 a year for health aides, childcare workers, cashiers and other minimum wage workers. With less buying power than it had in the 1960s, today’s minimum wage impoverishes working families and weakens the consumer demand at the heart of our economy.

Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense. Workers are also customers. Minimum wage increases boost sales at local businesses as workers buy needed goods and services they could not afford before. And nothing drives job creation more than consumer demand. Businesses also see cost savings from lower employee turnover and benefit from increased productivity, product quality and customer satisfaction. Increasing the minimum wage will also reduce the strain on our social safety net caused by inadequate wages.

A recent national poll shows that 61 percent of small business owners with employees support increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 and adjusting it yearly to keep pace with the cost of living. The most rigorous studies of the impact of actual minimum wage increases show they do not cause job loss – whether during periods of economic growth or during recessions.* The minimum wage would be over $10 if it had kept up with the rising cost of living since the 1960s instead of falling behind.

We support gradually raising the federal minimum wage over two and a half years to at least $10.10 an hour, and then adjusting it annually for inflation to keep up with the cost of living. It's good for business, customers and our economy.

* Research, polls and other resources are posted here.