Business leaders seem mixed about the president's State of the Union call to raise the federal baseline wage.

By Bruce Kennedy
MSN Money, Feb 13, 2013

The media and blogosphere lit up Tuesday night after President Barack Obama's call for Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour -- and to tie the minimum wage to the cost of living. ...

... But New York's governor has already proposed a minimum-wage raise in his state, and some business leaders there approve.

"Raising the minimum wage will put more money in...

By Charles Wilbanks, Alain Sherter
CBS News, Feb 13, 2013

(MoneyWatch) In issuing his call for an increase in the minimum wage in Tuesday's State of the Union address, President Obama reignited an old debate: Do such well-meaning efforts actually backfire, resulting in more unemployment and hardship for people at the bottom as businesses adjust their hiring to compensate for higher costs?

Many conservative economists and businesses cite such arguments in opposing mandatory hikes, and a lot of money changes hands lobbying against them -- lobbying that usually succeeds. It's easy to forget, for example...

By Dennis Phillips
Post-Journal (Jamestown, NY), Feb 8, 2013

State and federal chamber of commerce leaders are supporting an increase in New York's minimum wage, and they're not alone. 

On Thursday, Business for a Fair Minimum Wage held a press conference call with business and chamber leaders who support the proposed hike. In January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in his State of the State address a proposition to increase the low-income wage from $7.25 to $8.75. ...  

Margot Dorfman, U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer, said a wage hike is overdue. She...

By Andrew J. Hawkins
Crain's New York Business, Feb 8, 2014

... Backers of a minimum wage hike are lining up more business supporters for a hike to $8.75 an hour, including Costco and ABC Home. A full list of supporters can be found here. Meanwhile, the Business Council of New York State, which opposes any increase, acknowledged that it is looking for a compromise. 

http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/blogs/insider/2013/02/friday-mash-up-2/#ixzz2KLzlMrId

Host, Liz Benjamin
YNN Capital Tonight, Feb 7, 2013

Minimum wage advocates have some new allies in the business community. A group of business leaders and business owners from around the state have launched a new petition asking for the minimum wage to be brought up to eight-75 an hour. They are also calling for further increases tied to the cost of living, a measure known as indexing. Melanie Beam is the president of Capital District Local First and Britin Foster is the owner of All Good Bakers in Albany talk to Liz about the push.

http://capitaltonightny.ynn.com/2013/02/business-leaders-call-for-minim…

Video

Op-Ed By Darius Ross
Distributed in New York by American Forum, Feb 5, 2013. Known placements include Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin, Rockland County Times, Ithaca Journal, Poughkeepsie Journal, Elmira Star Gazette, Caribbean Life News, more 

When Governor Cuomo called for raising New York’s minimum wage, he expressed not only his own view, but also the convictions of 80 percent of New Yorkers who agree that the state’s lowest-paid workers are in urgent need of a raise. As a business owner, I support the effort to raise the minimum wage because it makes good...

By Shane Richard Bell
North Idaho Business Journal, Jan 29, 2013

... 10 states and two cities officially raised their minimum wages on Jan. 1. Idaho wasn’t one of those states. In fact, Idaho’s state minimum wage matches that of the federal minimum wage at $7.25 an hour. A tipped employee in Idaho makes $3.35 per hour.

Washington and Montana, Idaho’s neighbors, pay their tipped workers more than twice as much per hour than Idaho.

In Montana, for a tipped employee, the minimum wage is $7.80. In Washington, a tipped employee earns $9.04 per hour, and a...

By Emma Beck
USA Today, Jan 29, 2013

Nearly half the states have increased their minimum wage this year or are considering plans to hike it as the economy transitions from recession to a stronger recovery. Thirteen states have weighed wage increases since Jan. 1. Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Hawaii are among the most recent. ... In nine other states, automatic wage hikes took effect, adding 10 to 35 cents per hour to state minimum wages. In a 10th state, an increase approved by the Rhode Island Legislature last June raised the state's minimum from...

By Michael Gormley
Associated Press, Jan 24, 2013

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York state legislators on Wednesday began privately discussing a new way to increase the state's minimum wage after Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave the long-blocked effort a big boost in his proposed budget.

Cuomo on Tuesday proposed to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $8.75. He didn't, however, include a provision from the Assembly's proposal that would index the wage to inflation to create automatic increases. That worried advocates for the working poor who say the buying power of a...

By Kate Havard
Washington Post, January 23, 2013

On Tuesday, Maryland lawmakers and activists launched “Raise Maryland,” an effort to raise the state’s minumum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10 per hour by 2015.

“We like to say we live in the wealthiest state in America,” said Del. Aisha Braveboy (D-Prince George’s County) “Well, how much do you think it costs to live in the wealthiest state in America?” More than the minimum wage earner can afford, she said.

"When the minimum wage was at its greatest value it was 45 years ago in 1968,”...

http://youtu.be/Ddi_RQKjSrs

Op-Ed By David Bolotsky
Albany Times Union, Jan 21, 2013

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has demonstrated his commitment to a sustainable economic recovery in New York by calling for an increase in the state minimum wage, from an inadequate rate of $7.25 per hour to $8.75. New York's minimum wage has not changed since 2007, and the governor's leadership will hopefully break the political gridlock.

As a business owner, my greatest hope is that the governor and the Legislature decide to index the minimum wage to rise automatically with the cost of living each year. This...

HR and Employment Law News, Jan 17, 2013

Pennsylvania Senator Christine Tartaglione recently announced plans to reintroduce legislation, formerly S.B. 235 of 2011–2012, which would provide for a cost-of-living adjustment to Pennsylvania’s minimum wage law.

“For several decades, wages of low and middle income workers have remained fairly stagnant, while wages of the highest paid workers have increased steadily,” Senator Tartaglione said in a written statement. …

Ten states have set their minimum wages to increase automatically based on inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index or other cost-of-living factor. Those states include Arizona...

Op-Ed by Jeff Furman
Chair of the Board of Directors, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc
Huffington Post, Jan. 10, 2013

With working families in New York still struggling to make ends meet in this sluggish economic recovery, Albany lawmakers should consider a full range of policies to create jobs and boost economic growth when the new legislative session begins in January. For the sake of New York's lowest-paid workers -- and for the countless businesses across the state whose sales are shrinking because too many consumers cannot afford basic expenses -- raising New York's minimum...

Op-Ed by Darius Ross
Distributed by American Forum, Dec. 27, 2012. Known placements include Detroit News, Trenton Times, Montgomery Advertiser (AL), Atlanta Inquirer, Madison Capital Times, Times & Democrat (SC), Durham Herald Sun (NC),  Asbury Park Press (NJ), La Prensa San Diego, Fall River Herald News (MA), North Dallas Gazette, many more

As a longtime businessman, I see a deficit in America that has received far too little attention. Thats the wage deficit experienced by growing numbers of Americans, with serious consequences for our economy.

On January 1, the minimum wage increases in Rhode Island...