Cape Cod Today, Dec 26, 2015
The Massachusetts minimum wage rises Jan. 1 to a highest-in-the-nation $10 an hour and the state income tax will simultaneously fall to 5.1 percent from 5.15 percent ...
MASSACHUSETTS, CALIFORNIA WILL HAVE HIGHEST MINIMUM WAGES IN 2016
Massachusetts and California on Jan. 1, 2016 will be tied at $10 an hour for the highest state minimum wages, according to a national business group. The Massachusetts wage floor is rising from $9 an hour under a 2014 law that also requires the minimum wage here to increase to $11 an hour on Jan. 1, 2017, the last of three scheduled increases. According to Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a network of business organizations and owners who favor higher minimum wages, workers in 14 states will experience minimum wage hikes in the new year. The group wants Congress to raise the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage, which has been at that level since 2009, to at least $12 an hour by 2020. Washington state has had the highest minimum wage recently, but will remain at $9.47 in the new year. New York's minimum wage on Dec. 31 is set to rise to $9, or $9.75 for employees of fast food chains except New York City where it will go to $10.50. Connecticut's minimum wage will increase to $9.60 on Jan. 1, 2016 and to $10.10 on Jan. 1, 2017, according to the group, which says Rhode Island and Vermont are also poised to revise their minimum wages to $9.60 on Jan. 1, 2016. The group says the federal minimum wage of 1968 was worth $10.94 cents in today's dollars. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center estimates that 450,000 working people in Massachusetts will receive a hike in the minimum wage on Jan. 1.
...