By Ledyard King
USA TODAY, Feb 25, 2021

Backers of a push to raise the federal hourly minimum wage to $15 suffered a key loss Thursday after a Senate official ruled the controversial measure cannot be considered as part of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package making its way through Congress. ...

Rebecca Hamilton, co-CEO of New Hampshire-based W.S. Badger Company, which makes skincare products, told the [House Small Business] committee that paying her employees no less than $15 an hour has helped her small firm.

"This approach has enabled us to spend virtually zero dollars on...

By Mia Summerson
Keene Sentinel (NH), Feb 25, 2021

One of the leaders of a Gilsum-based business testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business on Wednesday, speaking in favor of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Addressing the committee via video call, W.S. Badger Company’s co-CEO, Rebecca Hamilton, urged Congress to support the Raise the Wage Act of 2021, which aims to increase the minimum wage incrementally until it reaches $15 an hour in ... 2025. ...

New Hampshire is the only state in New England that does not have...

By Damien Fisher
Union Leader (NH), Feb 24, 2021

As Congress considers raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour — a measure that might be included in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill — the head of a Gilsum-based health products company testified in favor of paying workers more.

Rebecca Hamilton, co-CEO of the W.S. Badger Company, spoke in favor of the higher minimum via video conferencing Wednesday before the House Small Business Committee. She said high wages have been the key to success at the 90-employee company her father started. ...

Read more

By Samantha Manning
Cox Media Group, Washington News Bureau, Feb 24, 2021

Leaders in Washington are debating whether the federal minimum wage should be more than doubled from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour. A House subcommittee took up the issue Wednesday, and lawmakers were at odds over the long-term economic impact to workers and small businesses.

Lawmakers heard from a small-business owner of a [skin care] company based in New Hampshire which already starts the pay rate for workers at $15 an hour.

“Our fair pay business model has helped us to attract and retain excellent staff, while...

By Mitch Perry
Spectrum News, Bay News 9, Feb. 16, 2021

Among the most controversial bills filed in advance of the 2021 Florida legislative session is a proposal by state Sen. Jeff Brandes that would amend the constitutional amendment passed last November that raises the minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2026. The St. Petersburg Republican’s measure would allow the Legislature to exempt convicted felons, people under 21 and other “hard to hire” workers from receiving that higher wage – but it would only go into effect if passed by the voters as a constitutional amendment. ...

Leigh...

By Megan R. Wilson
Bloomberg, Feb. 16, 2021

A proposal to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 has triggered a fierce lobbying battle on Capitol Hill, pitting some powerful business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce against large labor unions and civil rights coalitions. ...

Proponents of the hike such as the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, and the National Employment Law Project say the virus-driven economic downturn illustrates that a boost is necessary to help lift people out of poverty. Coalitions of companies, such as Business for a Fair Minimum Wage...

Op-Ed By Wendell Young IV and Sen. Christine “Tina” Tartaglione
Penn Live/ Patriot News, Feb 5, 2021

It is rare that you will find the president of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce, union leaders, advocates, and members of the General Assembly all on the same page. But after a three-hour long hearing hosted by chair of the Democratic Policy Committee Senator Katie Muth at the request of Senators Tartaglione, Haywood and Kane, it seems there might be one issue we could all agree upon: eliminating local government pre-emption for minimum wage laws. ...

Pennsylvania’s minimum wage has not...

By Joanna Fantozzi
Restaurant Hospitality, Feb 5, 2021

... It was a campaign promise by President Joe Biden, who proposed slowly doubling the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to $15 by 2025. And it’s a move that has gained increasing support. Eight states are already in the process of phasing in a $15 per hour minimum wage — including most recently the conservative state of Florida — and it’s already in place in Washington, D.C. ... Here are some arguments for and against the increase to a $15 per hour minimum wage...

By John Biers, Delphine Touitou
AFP News (Agence France-Presse), Barron's, Jan 31, 2021. Also in International Business Times, Yahoo News, MSN, Raw Story, many more

When President Joe Biden unveiled a $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal earlier this month, few were surprised by the plan's hefty price tag or sweeping scope. More striking was Biden's inclusion of a measure to more than double the federal minimum wage to $15. ...

In response to written questions on whether to index local costs, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen emphasized the need for a "nationwide" wage hike "phased in over...

By Benjamin Kail
MassLive, Jan 27, 2021

Democrats are pressing to double the federal minimum wage to $15, introducing a standalone bill in Congress Tuesday as lawmakers and White House officials haggle over President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus plan, which also includes a bump ...

“The economy will get a shot in the arm when states raise their minimum wage to start the new year,” Holly Sklar, CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, said in December. More than 1,300 businesses and business groups have signed on to support Sklar’s effort, according to CBS News.

“Businesses depend on...

By Sarah Ewall-Wice
CBS News, Jan 27, 2021

President Biden is among those who believe that raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour is what's needed to bring the lowest-paid Americans out of poverty. "No one in America should work 40 hours a week making below the poverty line," he said Friday. ...

Some business groups even argue that the increased wages put money back into local economies and small businesses. Business For a Fair Minimum Wage has gathered more than 1,300 signatories in support of the effort, ranging from small businesses across...

By Stephen Parkhurst
Grow / CNBC, Jan 27, 2021

WATCH VIDEO with Business for a Fair Minimum Wage Vice President Alissa Barron-Menza, Badger Balm Co-CEO Rebecca Hamilton and Dr. Bronner's CEO David Bronner.

By Aarthi Swaminathan
Yahoo Finance, Jan 26, 2021

New Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and congressional Democrats are renewing their push to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. ... The newly introduced bill is co-sponsored by House Committee on Education and Labor Chair Bobby Scott (D-VA), Sanders, Senate HELP Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL). ...

Mike Draper, owner of Des Moines-based Raygun LLC, a clothing, home goods and printing company, also expressed his support for the bill.

“This...

Business Record, Jan 26, 2021

A prominent Des Moines small business owner is siding with federal minimum wage advocates who say that “raising wages is good business.” Mike Draper, owner of Raygun LLC, a popular clothing, home goods and printing company in the East Village, participated in a live videoconference today with other business owners from around the country and members of the Committee on Education and Labor... in support of the Raise the Wage Act of 2021. The legislation would raise the federal minimum wage incrementally from $7.25 to an hour to $15 by 2025.

“Paying...

By Juliana Kaplan 
Business Insider, Jan 26, 2021

"This is not a radical idea," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on Tuesday. "This is what the American people want." ... Sanders was speaking on a press call with other Democrats from both congress and the senate who introduced the Raise the Wage Act, which would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. 

The call also included Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the House Education and Labor Committee Chairman, who said the act would raise wages for 32 million workers, around half of whom are essential workers...