CURRENT SIGNERS include • Hollister Staffing • Bon Me Restaurants • Allandale Farm • Grossman Marketing • Equal Exchange • Valley Home Improvement • Aeronaut Brewing • Formaggio Kitchen • Cambridge Naturals • Zoar Outdoor • Good Clothing Company • The People’s Pint • Collective Home Care Inc • Lola Travel • PharmaLogics Recruiting • BlueWave Solar • Trillium Asset Management • Juliet • Wistia • South Mountain Co. • Australis Aquaculture • Dr. Bronner's • Organic Valley • Porter Square Books • Real Pickles • Hilltown Tree & Garden • Irving House • American Sustainable Business Council • Green Business Network • Responsible Wealth • and See More than 300 Signers Here • Statement sponsored by Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.

As business owners and executives, we support gradually raising the Massachusetts minimum wage. It’s good for business, customers and our economy.

Workers are also customers. Today’s minimum wage is not keeping up with the cost of living. Raising the minimum wage boosts consumer buying power – increasing sales at local businesses as workers buy products and services they could not afford before. And nothing drives job creation more than consumer demand.

Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense. Low pay typically means high employee turnover. With lower turnover, businesses see reduced hiring and training costs, less product waste, and lower error and accident rates. Businesses benefit from increased productivity, product quality and customer satisfaction. Employees often make the difference between repeat customers and lost customers.

Raising the minimum wage is smart policy. It will reduce the strain on the social safety net caused by companies that pay their employees too little to live on. It will level the playing field among businesses, strengthen the economy, and help businesses and communities thrive.

Today’s $11 minimum wage, adjusted for the cost of living, is worth less than in 1968. We support gradually increasing the Massachusetts minimum wage by $1 a year until it reaches $15 an hour, and then adjusting it annually to keep up with the cost of living.