By Niv Elis
The Hill, July 1, 2020

Higher minimum wages will go into effect for workers in Illinois, Nevada and Oregon, as well as a handful of major cities, starting July 1. ...

“The July 1 raises are welcome increases for the economy, because more money in the pockets of workers means more consumer spending at local businesses," said Holly Sklar, CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. ...

The last federal minimum wage increase took place 11 years ago.

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By Ben Werschkul
Yahoo Finance, June 30, 2020

Twenty-one states had minimum wage increases or cost of living adjustments at the beginning of 2020. And now, halfway into 2020, more are set to continue pushing the nation’s average minimum wage upwards even as the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25. ...

"We are just working our way up to what's truly a fair wage in our country," says Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, president and CEO ECOS, who also works with Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a group that advocates for higher rates.

ECOS, which manufactures environmentally friendly cleaning products, has a...

By Paul Davidson
USA Today, June 30, 2020. Also in Detroit Free Press, Daily News Journal (TN), Times Herald (MI), Ventura County Star (CA), more

While millions of Americans are losing financial assistance that has kept them afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, several states and 21 localities are partly offsetting the pain with a different kind of lifeline: minimum wage hikes.

On Wednesday, Illinois, Nevada and Oregon are set to raise their pay floors as part of large increases that are being phased in over several years . ...

“More money in the pockets of workers means more consumer...

By Ally Schweitzer
WAMU 88.5 (NPR), June 30, 2020

Advocates who fought for a $15 minimum wage couldn’t have predicted a threat like the coronavirus. ... But labor-focused economists and progressive business groups say an economic downturn is the wrong time to pay workers less.

“People forget that the federal minimum wage was enacted during the incredibly hard times of the Great Depression,” says Alissa Barron-Menza, vice president of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, which supported wage hikes in Virginia and Maryland. “The goal of the minimum wage was to alleviate poverty and to boost...

Interview By Seana Smith and Ben Werschkul
Yahoo Finance, June 29, 2020

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, President and CEO of ECOS, joined The Final Round to discuss the minimum wage increases going into effect on July first in Illinois, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, D.C. and what it means for the economic recovery.

WATCH

By Christina A. Cassidy
Associated Press (AP), June 25, 2020

... Having access to quick test results will play an important role in resuming sporting events, keeping businesses and factories open, and returning to school in the fall. But the AP survey found it sometimes still takes days for results to be returned, despite an increase in the availability of testing across the country. ...

Judy Clinco, owner of Catalina In-Home Services in Tucson, Arizona, has had to test about 30 of her 110 staffers, who provide care and assistance to seniors in their homes. They...

By Jay Heflin
Washington Examiner, June 3, 2020

Restaurants across the United States are slowly and gradually reopening but face an existential risk: Many restaurants cannot survive below full capacity, meaning that the jobs of the roughly 6 million servers and bartenders laid off in the pandemic are still at stake. ...

Furthermore, patrons are not the only ones concerned about dining out. Some servers are also worried about returning to work.

“It’s too soon,” said Ned Atwater, owner of six restaurants in Maryland.

The state now allows restaurants within the state to serve patrons...

By Amanda Holpuch
The Guardian, May 25, 2020

... The March coronavirus stimulus package provided an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits for four months for the now 39 million people who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic ... Last year, the weekly payment for unemployment was on average nearly $378, according to the US labor department. Come August, the workers who aren’t making more on unemployment will suddenly face an even bigger drop in pay.

Outside of politicians, some small businesses who are struggling to hire back workers have complained that their employees won’t return...

By Jake Burns
CBS 6 News, WTVR-TV, Richmond, May 5, 2020

Virginia businesses are weighing two difficult options, one day after Governor Ralph Northam extended his closure order to May 15th: open their doors with restrictions to start making money again, or remain closed to protect the health of their employees and customers.

Alex Zavaleta and his co-owner at Charm School Social Club, an ice cream shop in downtown Richmond, have been hand scooping to-go pints for weeks after having to lay off their staff in mid-March when the virus began spreading in Virginia.

“We had...

Op-Ed by John Schall
Boston Globe, April 28, 2020

COVID-19 and the resulting public health ban on dining out have plunged American restaurants into a crisis that many won’t survive. Those that remain open have become dependent on third-party delivery services. But the dominance of a few delivery companies creates its own dire financial threat to the survival of the very restaurants they serve. ...

In the United States, four restaurant delivery companies — DoorDash, GrubHub, UberEats, and Postmates — control 99 percent of the restaurant delivery market, a classic oligopoly. ... As a result...

Bloomberg Radio, April 24, 2020
By John Tucker

Interview with John Pepper, CEO, Boloco, on what the business is doing to survive the pandemic.

Letter to the Editor by Emily Kanter
Boston Globe, March 11, 2020

Below is an incomplete list of all the people who cannot “work from home” and who run the risk of their livelihoods being drastically affected if our local, state, and federal governments do not act to create broad-based economic solutions to support all this “social distancing” we’re talking about.

These employees’ livelihoods require showing up, and most small businesses, like mine, are not able to provide for all employees, en masse, to suddenly take two (or eight) weeks of paid leave. Until governments...

Op-Ed By Victoria McCoy, Owner, Glamystique Hair Salon
My business isn’t just a bottom-line operation, it’s my community. And like my business, my community could use the economic boost that would come from raising the minimum wage statewide to $15 an hour. ...

Op-Ed By Ward Tefft, Owner, Chop Suey Books
... There is simply no more direct and rapid way to boost consumer spending and strengthen Virginia’s business environment than to raise the minimum wage statewide. ...

By Tyler Arnold
The Center Square, Feb 12, 2020. Also The Central Virginian, The Breeze (James Madison University)

The Virginia House of Delegates and Senate have passed bills that would increase the commonwealth's minimum wage, but the chambers aren't on the same page in how to implement the increase.

The House version, House Bill 395, would more than double the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour across the whole state over the course of five years. The increase would be implemented incrementally: $10 in July 2020, $11.25 in July 2021, $12 in July...