By Bethany Budde-Cohen, Owner, SqWires Restaurant & Annex
Letter to the Editor, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Oct 16, 2018

The commentary “Minimum wage hike will lead to unintended consequences” (Oct. 8) by a fellow at the Show-Me Institute tries to mask hostility to a minimum wage law, which it calls “an artificially imposed floor price,” by claiming that raising the minimum wage to $12 by 2023 under Proposition B will cost jobs and “harm the very people” it’s “supposed to benefit.” As a business owner, I can tell you that’s not true.

Rigorous research of actual minimum wage...

United Press International (UPI), Oct. 16, 2018

From marijuana in the Midwest to abortion and minimum wage in the South, voters across the United States have more than just hotly contested congressional races to consider in next month’s midterm election. ... Here are some of the highlights. ...

Minimum wage

While there are nationwide campaigns to raise the United States’ minimum wage to $15, two states in the South have ballot measures to raise theirs to a shorter extent.

Arkansas’ provision would raise minimum wage from $8.50 an hour to $11 an hour by 2021. The...

By Philip Joens
Jefferson City News Tribune, October 11, 2018

A proposal to raise Missouri's minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2023 is dividing businesses. ...

Not all businesses oppose Proposition B. More than 450 business representatives signed a list supporting Proposition B, according to Businesses For a Fair Minimum Wage, a group of business owners that support the measure.

Eleven Jefferson City business owners signed to indicate their support: Spectators Sports Bar & Grill owner Scott Drinkard, Love2Nourish owner Laurel Dunwoody, J.R. Pain Management owner Julie Ruengert, Antiquarium owner Lance Salmons, Premium Pets...

By Andrea Tudhope
KCUR 89.3 (NPR), Oct 10, 2018

... A study from MIT suggests a single adult in Kansas City needs to make $11.05 an hour to get by. The same calculation says an adult with one child needs to make $24.06. But at $7.85, a full-time minimum wage worker in Missouri takes home only about $16,000 a year. ...

Research also suggests a higher minimum wage results in more productivity and less turnover in the workplace, which saves businesses money. More than 400 Missouri businesses — most of them small — have backed Prop...

CNBC, Oct 2, 2018

CNBC's Kate Rogers reports on the minimum wage impact Amazon is having on small businesses after it raised its minimum wages for U.S. workers. 

Quotes Business for a Fair Minimum Wage Statement: "All businesses, big and small, should pay a wage that workers can live on. It's way past time to raise the impoverishing $7.25 federal minimum wage, strengthen consumer demand, and help level the playing field among businesses."

WATCH HERE

Op-Ed By Bob Goodrich
Jefferson City News Tribune, Oct 2, 2018. Also in the Fulton Sun.

Movie theaters have been our family business since my father opened a single-screen theater in 1930 with a showing of “All Quiet on the Western Front.” I bought my father’s theater in 1967, and expanded Goodrich Quality Theaters to five states, including Capital 8 in Jefferson City. We couldn’t have done it without great employees and generations of moviegoers coming through our doors.

A lot has changed and improved in the 50 years since I’ve owned the business – from the wide range of  movies we now show to the sound, seats...

By Daniel J. Munoz
NJBIZ, October 2, 2018

The increase of a minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2023 could inject $3.9 billion in the state’s economy through a rise of the consumption power for over 1 million residents, according to a report by the advocacy group New Jersey Policy Perspective.

NJPP’s report, unveiled Tuesday at a statehouse press conference in Trenton, said a higher minimum wage would result in lower employee turnover, thereby lowering the costs of hiring and training. A wage increase would also boost productivity and purchasing power for workers, according to the report.

[Brandon...

By Rich Sugg and Allison Kite
Kansas City Star, Oct 1, 2018

The Rieger restaurant owner Howard Hanna talks about Missouri minimum wage vote and his restaurant's protocol of paying well above the minimum wage.

WATCH VIDEO

By Allison Kite
Kansas City Star, Missouri Influencer Series, Oct 1, 2018

It’s been years since Desiree Saunders earned the minimum wage...but the child nutrition worker at Kansas City Public Schools said she constantly sees students whose families struggle because their parents earn Missouri’s minimum wage. ... Missouri’s minimum wage is $7.85 per hour, but an initiative petition on the November ballot would raise it to $12 per hour. ...

At The Rieger restaurant on Main Street, owner Howard Hanna said he pays his workers well above the minimum wage. To him, that makes good business sense because...

By Michael R. Wickline
Arkansas Democrat Gazette, September 26, 2018

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin said Tuesday they plan to vote against a proposed initiated act that would raise the state's minimum wage by $2.50 an hour to $11 an hour by 2021. These two Republicans signaled their opposition to Issue 5 on the Nov. 6 general election ballot in separate written statements, after supporters of the proposed ballot measure held a news conference Tuesday morning at Trio's restaurant in Little Rock as a kick-off event.

The proposed initiated act would raise the minimum...

By Katie Woodall
KAIT Region 8 News, Little Rock, September 25, 2018

A group hoping to increase the minimum wage by $2.50 an hour by 2021 kicked off an awareness campaign Tuesday. As Little Rock station KATV reports, Arkansans For A Fair Wage are fighting for Issue 5 to be put on the November ballot. ...

Capi Peck is a restaurant owner in Little Rock who supports Issue 5.

Peck already pays her employees above the minimum wage, and says it has paid off for her business.

“It’s been successful for me to pay my staff more...

By Marine Glisovic

KATV ABC 7, Little Rock, September 25, 2018

If approved by Arkansas voters, minimum wage earners could see another $2.50 an hour by 2021. A group hoping to increase the minimum wage kicked off an awareness campaign on Tuesday. While Arkansans For a Fair Wage hopes to educate voters, Issue 5 remains in legal limbo after a lawsuit was filed to remove the question from the November ballot. ... During Tuesday’s press conference, several supporters voiced their reasons as to why Arkansans should approve increasing the minimum wage to $11 an hour...

By Elliot Bauman
Missouri Business Alert, Sept 20, 2018

... Missourians will vote in November on Proposition B, which would raise the state’s minimum wage to $12 by 2023. More than 400 Missouri businesses have come out in support of the wage hike, hoping increased labor costs will be offset by the economic benefits.

Leigh Lockhart, the owner of Main Squeeze Cafe in Columbia, is one of the business owners supporting an increased minimum wage. She doesn’t believe Proposition B, which would increase the wage floor by 85 cents per year until 2023, will impact her...

... Among the most impactful initiatives on the ballot statewide on November 6 is Proposition B, which would raise the state’s minimum wage to $12 by 2023. The initiative would increase Missouri’s minimum wage from its current rate of $7.85 an hour to $8.60 next year, and then increase it gradually each year until it reaches $12 an hour in 2023. “The increase to $12 phases in gradually, giving low-paying businesses time to adjust and experience the benefits of a rising minimum wage – such as increased consumer spending, cost savings from lower employee turnover, increased productivity, and happier customers,” said Pam Hausner, owner of Big Vision Design in Kansas City and business campaign manager for Missouri Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. ...

By Will Schmitt
Springfield News-Leader, Sept. 19, 2018

A quarter of Greene County's workforce could see higher pay if a Nov. 6 ballot measure raising the minimum wage is approved...

More: Springfield businesses back $12 minimum wage in Missouri

A minimum wage hike will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot as Proposition B. It would gradually increase the state minimum wage from $7.85 per hour to $12 per hour by 2023. ...

A coalition of small businesses in Springfield and around Missouri has formed to advocate for the $12 minimum wage initiative. ...

Read more