By Eillie Anzilotti
Fast Company, June 17, 2019

Nine years, 10 months, three weeks, and three days. That’s exactly how long, as of June 16, it’s been since the federal minimum wage last budged. It’s a new record for the amount of time the minimum wage has been stagnant, edging out the last dry spell, which lasted from September 1997 to July 2007.

When the federal minimum wage was last raised in 2009, it went up to its current threshold of $7.25 an hour (adjusted for inflation, it’s now worth less than it was in 1950)...

Op-Ed By Chris Lu, Former Dep Labor Secretary
... I met with owners of both large and small businesses who explained that higher wages improve employee recruitment and retention, productivity and customer service. ...

By Dave Jamieson
HuffPost, June 16, 2019

The more things change, the more the minimum wage stays the same. At $7.25 per hour, to be exact. ...

Groups calling for a higher wage floor said Congress just earned an embarrassing distinction. Business for a Fair Minimum Wage called it a “terrible milestone,” saying “lawmakers need to listen and act now.” ...

Read more

By Lydia DePillis
CNN, June 14, 2019

(CNN Business) The US economy is setting all kinds of records this year, and one of them is the length of time the federal minimum wage has gone without an increase. America's base pay rate has remained at $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009 — 3,614 days ago on Sunday. That will be the biggest time lapse since July 2007, when the wage hadn't risen since September 1997.

The decade since the minimum wage last went up also covers what in July will become America's longest economic expansion on record...

ABC 27 News, June 13, 2019

WATCH VIDEO

LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) -- First lady Frances Wolf calls it an embarrassment that every state surrounding Pennsylvania has a higher minimum wage.

The wife of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf toured Lancaster Sweet Shoppe on Thursday and tried to rally support for a boost in the state's minimum wage.

She says 89% of people on minimum wage are adults and most of them are women. ...

Read more

By Jayne Ann Bugda
PA HomePage/ WBRE/WYOU-TV, June 13. 2019

LANCASTER (WBRE/WYOU-TV)  – First Lady Frances Wolf today met with employees of The Stroopie Co. at The Lancaster Sweet Shoppe. There the First Lady called on Pennsylvania legislators to support workers and finally increase the commonwealth's minimum wage to $15 per hour.

“Too many families in Pennsylvania are struggling to put food on their tables due to our outdated minimum wage, which is currently the lowest allowed by federal law and lags behind 29 other states,” First Lady Wolf said in a prepared release from PINS....

By Jayne Ann Bugda
PA Homepage/ WBRE/WYOU-TV , May 23, 2019

WATCH VIDEO

Labor and Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak is pushing for a $15 an hour minimum wage. He toured the One Point Facility in Scranton Thursday morning. The company supports raising the minimum wage and credits paying a living wage for its hourly employees as the key to their growth and success.

"The current minimum wage was established in 2009. If it was minimum wage then what is it now? The other thing is a lot of people making 7.25 an hour are on...

By Alex Lloyd Gross
Delaware Valley News (PA), May 23, 2019

Several Elected officials in lower Bucks County paid a visit to Exact Solar in Newtown Township to discuss the minimum wage. That issue has been a political hot button and it appears that most of the republican opposition has softened their stance on keeping the minimum wage at $7.25 /hr.. Just how much the rate will jump depends on a lot of different factors in negotiations which will happen during June of this year. Currently Governor Wolf has proposed a rate to raise the...

By Paul Kurtz
KYW Newsradio (CBS), May 23, 2019

PHILADELPHIA — Supporters of a $15 minimum wage held what they called a day of action in cities and townships across Pennsylvania Thursday. Philadelphia-area lawmakers went to a Suburban Station barbershop where the owner, Michael O'Conner, pays his staff nearly three times the minimum wage. 

"I know people say that if you do this you could kill small businesses, but we're a very small business. Five people here and four in our other. We have the same expenses and the same overhead and we seem to be doing...

Inc. Video, May 9, 2019

When Michael Lastoria founded &Pizza, he decided to do things the opposite way from most other fast casual restaurants. Here's what happened.

WATCH VIDEO
 

 By Lisa Jennings
Nation's Restaurant News, May 2, 2019

Five years ago, the proposal for a $15 per hour minimum wage seemed a ridiculous suggestion coming from radical fringe groups. ... Today, it seems restaurant operators are increasingly seeing $15 an hour as inevitable at a time when attracting and keeping good workers is harder than ever. ...

But restaurants are not dying. They are adapting by changing the way they think about attracting and retaining workers.

Perhaps the forces behind the “Fight for $15” movement can take some credit, spurring the ongoing debate around...

Op-Ed By Howard Hanna, Owner, The Rieger
... Two things are clear: First, the minimum wage hasn’t kept up with the cost of living ... And second, paying higher wages has real bottom-line business benefits. ...

By Joe Tompkins
Meadville Tribune (PA), April 24, 2019

There’s been a renewed push to raise the federal and state minimum wage to $15 per hour and, naturally, the conservative pushback has been strong. ... Their reasoning plays more on fear than facts — myths that keep people at poverty wages. ...

Myth No. 3: Raising the minimum wage is bad for business because it raises prices. It’s certainly true that raising the minimum wage will increase labor costs, but that doesn’t mean prices have to go up. Even when they do, price increases are typically minimal...

By Zach Sparks
Pasadena Voice, April 18, 2019

... Minimum Wage

Both the House and Senate overrode Hogan’s veto of a bill that will increase the minimum wage to $11 by January 1, 2020. Businesses with 15 or more employees must increase that wage by 75 cents per year until reaching $15 in 2025. Businesses with 14 or fewer employees will increase the rate by 60 cents per year, reaching $15 in 2026. ...

Alissa Barron-Menza, vice president of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, was one of the bill’s supporters. “An increase in the...

By Richard Bishop
Letter to the Editor, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, April 16, 2019

Sullying good name

As a small-business owner, I was relieved when legislation trying to weaken the law raising the minimum wage was voted down in the Legislature recently. I, along with the majority of Arkansans, voted to raise the minimum wage last November because it makes good economic sense. Some lawmakers tried to use the good name of small business as a reason to weaken the law. That's offensive to small-business owners like myself.

Workers in one business are customers at another. Raising...