By Michael P. Norton
State House News Service, Dec 5, 2017

A business owner who raised his company's entry wage to $15 an hour last year says his company has experienced less staff turnover, better customer service, and growing sales since then.

Michael Kanter plans on Tuesday to describe the wage hike's impact as activists submit more than 139,000 signatures to the state in their bid to put a question on the 2018 ballot requiring the minimum wage to rise to $15 an hour by 2022.

"When we announced to customers why we were increasing...

By Michael P. Norton, State House News Service
Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Dec 5, 2017

BOSTON — A business owner who raised his company’s entry wage to $15 an hour last year says his company has experienced less staff turnover, better customer service, and growing sales since then.

Michael Kanter plans on Tuesday to describe the wage hike’s impact as activists submit more than 139,000 signatures to the state in their bid to put a question on the 2018 ballot requiring the minimum wage to rise to $15 an hour by 2022.

“When we announced to customers...

By Eillie Anzilotti
Fast Company, Oct 31, 2017

Serving up unique pies for an affordable price–and a living wage and healthcare for employees–the ethical pizza shop is expanding rapidly.

Michael Lastoria, co-founder, creative director, and CEO of &pizza–dubbed “the pizza shop for the 21st century” by The Washington Post–has vivid memories of opening his first shop on H Street in Northeast D.C. in the summer of 2012. The area was rapidly gentrifying; new restaurants were opening with price tags that placed the new eateries out of reach of the people that had lived around H street their whole lives. So...

Op-Ed By Michael Lastoria  –  Co-founder and CEO, &pizza
Washington Business Journal, Oct 26, 2017

It’s a simple, but critical concept: Take care of your people and your business will thrive for it.

And it’s a concept that’s often missed.

It’s the concept on which I built &pizza, a group of fast-casual pizza shops that has grown largely, if not entirely, on the shoulders of our employees — our Tribe. &pizza now includes four locations in Montgomery County, in addition to 22 others (and growing) in Maryland, D.C. and three other states. We are a family of...

By Jonathan Maze
Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 25, 2017

RSE Ventures, a sports and entertainment venture firm co-founded by the owner of the Miami Dolphins, has invested at least $25 million in the 23-unit fast casual pizza chain &pizza, the company announced on Wednesday. ... It’s the third funding round since 2015 for the Washington, D.C.-based chain, which has now received at least $60 million from investment firms over that period.

The latest funds will help the chain continue its East Coast expansion. The company has locations in D.C., New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. The...

By James T. Madore
Newsday, October 20, 2017

...  In Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties the minimum rose from $9 to $10 per hour on Dec. 31, 2016, and it will rise by another $1 each year until $15 is reached in December 2021.

... Not all local manufacturing executives feel burdened by the higher minimum wage. Some are even enthusiastic supporters.

“If you pay employees fairly, you will have less employee turnover, and that reduces your training costs,” said Jon Cooper, president of Spectronics Corp., a Westbury-based producer of ultraviolet lighting and fluorescent dyes...

By Mary C. King
Portland Tribune, Oct 5, 2017

The stronger of two studies of Seattle's recent minimum-wage hikes shows clear gains in weekly earnings and no loss of jobs or hours. ... Seattle's success at pushing fast food restaurants to pay better wages without cutting jobs, is most likely due to higher sales, lower turnover and better employee productivity.

When low-wage workers earn more, they spend more, increasing local sales in ways that business owners often don't anticipate. In February, Marketplace reported that Bill Phelps, CEO of Wetzel's Pretzels — projected to gross $165...

By Rachel Siegel
Washington Post, September 25, 2017

...  Business owners who support a $15 minimum wage include Michael Lastoria, founder of &pizza, which has locations in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia as well as the District, whose city council voted last year to require a $15-an-hour minimum wage by 2020.

Lastoria said higher wages help connect people to their employers and, by reducing turnover, also reduce training costs.

The company currently pays its D.C. employees $13 to $15 an hour. Workers at the Montgomery County stores — in Bethesda, North Bethesda, Gaithersburg and Germantown —...

By Kaitlin Milliken
Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Sept 23, 2017

BOSTON − As state legislators discuss bills to raise the minimum wage, business owners must decide if they are willing − and able − to pay their employees $15 an hour. ... Advocates say higher pay will improve employees’ quality of life, decrease job turnover and increase local spending. ...

“It’s time to ... make sure people can provide for their families and provide a pathway to the middle class,” said Rep. Daniel Donahue, D-Worcester, during a recent press conference at the Statehouse. Donahue is the...

By M.J. Tidwell
Daily Hampshire Gazette, September 22, 2017

BOSTON — Proponents of a bill to gradually raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021 spoke at a Statehouse hearing this week about the difficulties of living off the current $11 standard. But they also sympathized with business owners.

Filed by the late state Sen. Ken Donnelly, D-Arlington, and state Rep. Dan Donahue, D-Worcester, the bill is backed by Raise Up Massachusetts and Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, coalitions of community organizers, religious groups, labor unions and business owners. ... 

At...

Wicked Local: Arlington Advocate, Brookline Tab, others, Sept 21, 2017

On Sept. 19, Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington, testified before the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development in support of S.1004, “An Act to improve the Commonwealth’s economy with a strong minimum wage and a strong tipped minimum wage,” an initiative originally filed by the late Sen. Ken Donnelly. Friedman is leading the effort in the Senate to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. ...

To date, S.1004 has gained widespread support, including 21 Senate co-sponsors, labor unions, religious groups, community organizations, and advocacy...

By Greg Ryan
Boston Business Journal, Sept 21, 2017

...  Raise Up’s leaders say they're open to a legislative compromise on minimum wage and paid leave. They hold a major trump card, though: If those leaders don’t like a counterproposal from the business community, they can simply walk away knowing they can ask voters to OK their ideas. Business leaders acknowledge that all three measures are likely to carry high support among Massachusetts residents, at least at the moment.

...For its part, Raise Up thinks it can successfully argue to the masses that their proposals...

By Shira Schoenberg
Springfield Republican/MassLive, Sept 20, 2017

Michael Kanter, the owner of Cambridge Naturals, a health and wellness store in Cambridge, raised his minimum wage to $15 an hour last December.

"Not only is it valuable for the people who will be getting that raise, but it's also valuable for our business," Kanter said. "It helps with employee retention, employee enthusiasm, customers get excited."

"Massachusetts living is very expensive, so if we want our employees to be able to survive and thrive in our own communities, we need to give them the wages that will...

Greater Boston with Jim Braude
WGBH TV, Sept 20, 2017

It worked before and now, minimum wage activists are hoping it will work again. In 2014, Massachusetts lawmakers approved a measure to gradually raise the minimum wage. But they did it under pressure. If the lawmakers didn’t act, there was a ballot question ready to go, which would have let the people decide.

In the end, the minimum wage went from 8 to 11 dollars in the state. But then, the fight for 15 swept the country with protesters in dozens of cities, including here...

By Andy Metzger
State House News Service, Sept 20, 2017

BOSTON -- A debate over adequate worker compensation that was waged before a legislative committee Tuesday and could be headed to the ballot next November has pitted two struggling groups against one another. ...

The minimum wage in January rose to $11, the last of three one-dollar increases required under the 2014 law. ... Massachusetts housing costs are among the highest in the nation. The average monthly cost of a Boston apartment lease was $2,038, the Boston Globe reported earlier this year. That is more...