By Matt Murphy
State House News Service, June 11, 2013
Boston - Efforts to boost the minimum wage for the first time in five years drew huge crowds to the State House Tuesday where Senate President Therese Murray has given the issue a boost this year with her support for addressing the gap between a “living wage” and what minimum wage workers earn.
A hearing before the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, co-chaired by Sen. Daniel Wolf and Rep. Thomas Conroy, drew throngs of proponents and a smaller group of critics to Gardner Auditorium where advocates, union workers and others filled the balconies and spilled into the hallways. ...
Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Joanne Goldstein testified Tuesday morning for the Patrick administration in support of raising the minimum wage, though the governor has not endorsed a specific rate. “Raising the minimum wage is one of the most effective ways to restore the local spending that powers our economy,” Goldstein said. ...
Shannon Liss-Riordan bought an Upper Crust location in Harvard Square at bankruptcy auction and renamed the pizza shop the Just Crust, turning it into a partially employee-owned cooperative.
“If you work full-time and work hard, you should be able to support yourself. You can’t do that on $8 an hour,” Liss-Riordan said at a press conference before the hearing. During the hearing, she testified that “businesses will succeed if they have happy workers.”
Joseph Rotella, the owner of Spencer Organ Company in Waltham, said he employs nine people at his company. He said failure to pay an adequate minimum wage “erodes the well-being of workers and communities.”
“When workers’ paychecks don’t cover necessities, small businesses are hurt,” Rotella said, explaining that less money for workers means less demand for the products of small businesses.
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