by John Callegari
Long Island Business News, May 24, 2012

A coalition of businesses, large and small, from across New York state joined together today to call on the State Senate to pass a bill increasing the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50. ...

“The proposal to raise the minimum wage to $8.50 next year and adjust it after that is by any measure very modest, especially in a high-cost state like New York,” said Mark Jaffe, President and CEO of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce. “Rather than hurting employers, we believe...

The Remarks Of Speaker Sheldon Silver at Press Conference Announcing Assembly Will Take Up Legislation To Raise The Minimum Wage, Capitol, May 15, 2012

On January 4th of this year, I announced that the Assembly Majority would make increasing the minimum wage a major priority for this legislative session.

Since then, we have done an extensive and thorough analysis. We have introduced a bill (Assembly 9148) to raise New York State's minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 per hour, and to index it to the rate of inflation.

The Chairman of our Committee on...

Excerpt: “By helping to empower New York's employees this city can move more quickly towards more productivity and better conditions for all New Yorkers. Empowerment starts with a living wage - enough pay to support yourself and family through your work,” said Dal LaMagna, President and CEO of IceStone, a company based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

New York City Living Wage Campaign Press Release, April 30, 2012

Diverse Supporters Praise Legislation as Much-Needed Reform that Will Strengthen the Local Economy and Put an End to the City’s Costly Failure to Create Good Jobs 

New...

Dal LaMagna, President & CEO of IceStone speaks at City Hall in support of living wages for New York workers on April 30, 2012

http://youtu.be/1Zyngk6xjZE

By Jeff Mays
DNAInfo.com, April 24, 2012 

HARLEM—While working for minimum wage at a Target in Queens, Tashawna Green said she often had to make tough choices.

"There were times when I had to decide between paying the rent or buying food," Green, a mother of one, said Monday during a state Assembly hearing on increasing the minimum wage.

"We had to depend on public assistance to make ends meet...because what I got from my employer couldn't pay everything," she said of herself and some of her co-workers.

Harlem Assemblyman Keith Wright, chair of the...

By Jon Campbell and Aaron Scholder
Gannett Albany Bureau, various papers, April 18, 2012 

ALBANY -- Varied opinions on the merits of raising the state's minimum wage were on full display Wednesday, with business groups and Senate Democrats hosting separate events focused on the hourly rate.

The Democrat-led Assembly and Republican-controlled Senate have been at odds over a bill to increase the wage from $7.25 to $8.50 and then tie future increases to the rate of inflation.

Lobbying groups representing private-sector businesses held their annual "Small Business Day" effort at the Capitol on Wednesday, featuring...

Posted by Joseph Spector
Democrat and Chronicle, April 18, 2012

At a Senate Democratic Conference hearing Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Sampson said the push to increase minimum wage in the state is one that’s vital to low-income workers’ ability to maintain a standard of living in the state, Gannett’s Aaron Scholder reports.

“It’s about justice. Making sure that we give the dignity and the quality of life that those employees deserve. Because the more you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your business,” Sampson said. ...

Senate Democrats said...

By Shannon Young
Associated Press, Feb 28, 2012 

HARTFORD (AP) -- Low-wage workers, economists and others are pushing lawmakers to support legislation that would raise the state's minimum wage during the coming years and eventually tie it to inflation.

The bill, which is being considered by the state's Labor and Public Employees Committee, would raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour, beginning July 2012, and to $9.75 an hour the following year. The bill requires the minimum wage rate to be tied to inflation beginning in July 2014.

If passed, the bill would raise...

St. Louis Post Dispatch Editorial, Oct 25, 2011

Wonder why the folks occupying Wall Street and Kiener Plaza are angry? It's this kind of thing:

Last week, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, the state's biggest business lobby, cheered because the Missouri economy was so weak that the minimum wage would not be raised.

"At a time when Missouri businesses are struggling to provide jobs in today's difficult economic climate, it is good news that labor costs will remain stable and competitive compared to other surrounding states," wrote chamber President Dan Mehan.

Three cheers for low-paying...

By Holly Sklar

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service, July 22, 2011 

Big company CEOs got a 23 percent raise last year and corporate profits are at record highs. But the minimum wage has less buying power now than in 1956 – the year Elvis Presley first topped the charts, videotape was breakthrough technology and the Dow closed above 500 for the very first time.

It’s no accident wages are down while corporate profits are up. As JPMorgan’s July 11 “Eye on the Market” newsletter put it,  “Reductions in wages and benefits explain the majority of...

By Megan Cottrell
Chicago Reporter, June 30, 2011

For the first time in five years, the state minimum wage won't go up today. From 2006 until 2009, the lowest wage that employers can pay their employees went from $6.50 to $8.25. And low-wage workers won't see their paychecks increase unless the Senate moves on a bill, SB 1565, that's currently stalled in committee.

Not only is the minimum wage not increasing in actual dollars, but its value has eroded too. According to Raise Illinois, a coalition of state organizations that are advocating to...

"If I were selecting a businessperson to be Citizen of the Year, I'd go with somebody like Lew Prince." Lew is a longtime BSP member. 

By Bill McClellan
St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 2, 2011

The great Motivational Seminar has come and gone — my 70 tickets never arrived — and it was, by all accounts, well-attended. Perhaps this means that our region will soon be surging forward. Thousands of motivated St. Louisans will be a mighty force for change!

Or maybe not.

Last week's "Get Motivated!" event — a swarm of celebrity speakers...

By Dave Jamieson
Huffington Post, April 28, 2011 

WASHINGTON -- Earlier this year, Missouri business leaders presented lawmakers with a six-point plan they said would bring jobs to the state during tough economic times. Since then, state Republicans have aggressively pushed the agenda and added their own legislative tweaks. Critics say the business-friendly platform is currently one of the most aggressive attacks on low-wage workers.

Backed by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and other trade groups, the "Fix the Six" plan includes a few of the business community's perennial gripes -- tort reform, workers' compensation...

By Lorraine Mirabella
The Baltimore Sun, April 10, 2011

Bridget Highkin works as hard now as she did two years ago. But then she brought home $800 a week from her waitressing job and today she's lucky to clear $300.

For now — until she completes a part-time nursing program and can find a job as a nurse — financial relief for her family hinges on a proposal to increase Maryland's hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.75 over three years. A few more dollars an hour would allow her to stop receiving assistance for day care and food, Highkin says.

By John Shepley
Op-Ed, Gazette (MD), April 8, 2011

As a small business owner, I support increasing Maryland's inadequate minimum wage because it makes good business sense. It's important for our economic recovery and progress.

Opponents of raising the minimum wage claim it's not the right time because the economy is weak. What they don't want you to remember is that for them the time is never right. In 2005, they opposed a raise in Maryland's minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.15. And they opposed federal legislation to raise the minimum wage in...