By Danny Klein
FSR Magazine, December 31, 2024

The restaurant industry is no stranger to having a crisis on its plate. That’s the nature of day-to-day, in-the-trenches hospitality and navigating macro battles for the country’s second-largest employer. But 2024 had a unique tilt that felt like the apex of years of post-COVID reactions. ... In plainer terms, restaurants grappled with hiking food and labor and the need to satisfy customers who had grown weary of price hikes. ...

The company [Restaurant365] tapped data from more than 6,200 restaurant and café locations ahead of the calendar...

By Eloise Goldsmith
Common Dreams, December 30, 2024. Also Connecticut Business Herald

With 23 states and the District of Columbia slated to increase their minimum wages by the end of 2025, the national network Business for a Fair Minimum Wage reports that business owners in states around the country are cheering those increases, saying they will boost consumer spending and hiring, increase productivity, help retain employees, and in general strengthen the economy.

According to a statement Business for a Fair Minimum Wage issued on December 12, the following states will have either a planned or...

By Elyse Schoenig
KSHB 41 TV, December 30, 2024

Missouri's minimum wage will increase from $12.30 to $13.75 an hour on January 1st. The wage increase is part of Proposition A, which Missouri voters approved in November. ...

“I feel like I have peace of mind being able to care for my family,” Cassidy Caraway, Oddly Correct cafe manager in Kansas City, said. “Especially because we have children, just knowing that we'll always have food for them and I can show up to work and like, be paid something that is livable.”

Mike Schroeder, the...

By Jill Lamkins
KMTV (CBS 3 Omaha), December 29, 2024

OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The minimum wage in Nebraska is increasing in the new year. Starting January 1st, those who make the current wage of $12 an hour will now make $13.50. ...

Soley Joe has been working at the clothing store Raygun for a few months. As a shift lead, she gets paid $17 an hour. ...

Prior to that, Joe was a barista working while she was in college at Dunkin' Donuts for $13 an hour, then Starbucks for $15 an hour.

"At...

Business for a Fair Minimum Wage Press Release
Yonkers Times (NY), December 27, 2024

Twenty-one states will raise their minimum wage on New Year’s Day as the calendar turns to 2025. Two other states and the District of Columbia have increases scheduled later in the year. Business owners across the country are welcoming the increases, saying they will boost consumer spending, increase productivity, improve hiring, employee retention and customer service, and strengthen local economies.

Hundreds of business owners in Missouri and Alaska worked with Business for a Fair Minimum Wage to support November 2024 ballot initiatives in their...

By Mili Mansaray
Kansas City Beacon, December 26, 2024. Also Springfield News Leader, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Business Alert, KCUR (NPR) Kansas City

A voter-mandated pay hike for Missouri’s minimum wage workers hasn’t kicked in yet — and conservative lawmakers and business groups are looking to the General Assembly and the courts to block the raise. ...

Mike Draper is the owner of Raygun Clothing, which has stores employing 105 people in Kansas City; Des Moines, Iowa; Chicago; and Omaha and Lincoln in Nebraska.

Draper is a member of Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy...

By Alex DeMarban
Anchorage Daily News, December 25, 2024. Also Yahoo News, Kansas City Star, Idaho Statesman, Wichita Eagle, Lexington Herald Leader, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Tacoma News Tribune, Sacramento Bee, Miami Herald, Raleigh News & Observer, more.

In the weeks after Ballot Measure 1 passed by a hefty margin, many Alaska employers are beginning to understand its impacts. ...

Mark Robokoff, owner of AK Bark pet supply store in Anchorage, was part of a coalition of small businesses that supported the measure. He said he believes the measure will improve the Alaska economy —...

By Thomas C. Zambito
LoHud (Rockland/Westchester Journal News) and Yahoo News,  December 19, 2024. Also Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Utica Observer Dispatch, Poughkeepsie Journal, Times Herald-Record (Middletown), Daily Messenger (Canandaigua)

New York’s minimum wage gets a 50-cent bump in January, to $16.50 in Westchester, New York City and Long Island and $15.50 in the rest of the state. This will be the first of two 50-cent increases that will bring the minimum wage to $17 downstate and $16 farther north by 2026. ...

New York joins 20 other states that will increase their minimum wage...

By David Winzelberg
Long Island Business News, December 13, 2024

As the minimum wage is set to climb again, small business and labor groups continue to clash on the issue. The minimum wage will increase on Jan. 1 to $16.50 an hour on Long Island, New York City and Westchester County, while the minimum wage for the rest of New York State rises to $15.50 an hour at the same time. ...

“The minimum wage should be increased as rising costs on Long Island still remain a barrier to living, playing and working here,” said...

By: Charlie Keegan
KSHB 41 TV, Kansas City, MO, December 11, 2024

A group of industry leaders in Missouri is asking the state's Supreme Court to throw out the results of November's election on Proposition A.

"I don’t believe voters had a real understanding of what they were voting for," said Buddy Lahl, CEO of the Missouri Restaurant Association. ...

Andi Montee co-owns Mokaska Coffee in downtown St. Joseph. The business threw its support behind Proposition A. Montee said the lawsuit was a surprise.

"I feel like it's really trying to get this removed on...

By Samantha Walker
KOAM TV, Joplin, MO, December 11, 2024

Starting Jan. 1st minimum wage in Missouri is set to increase to $13.75 an hour -  and in two years get up to $15.

But Missouri business groups have now filed a legal challenge to the newly passed proposition.

Groups like Business for a Fair Minimum wage support the proposition, in a news release saying "business owners across the state say the minimum wage increase will boost consumer spending and strengthen Missouri's workforce, businesses and economy." ...

Read more

By Gabrielle Teiner
KMIZ TV (ABC 17), Columbia, MO, December 9, 2024

Some representatives of Missouri's business community have filed a petition with the Missouri Supreme Court to overturn Proposition A. ...

Joe Chevalier owner of Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, and advocate for Proposition A, disagrees. ...

"We just voted for it. So it seems pretty clear about the will of the people is in Missouri on this topic," Chevalier said.  ...

More than 500 businesses across the state signed [on] in support of Proposition A.

A group called Business for a Fair Minimum...

By Tim Rowden
St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune, November 18, 2024

Missouri workers will see their minimum wage increase and begin earning paid sick days following voters’ overwhelming passage of Proposition A on Nov. 5. ...

More than 500 Missouri businesses in the Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy coalition endorsed Proposition A.

David Burmeister, owner of Midwest Pasta Co. in St. Louis, said, “Proposition A will strengthen Missouri’s workforce and businesses. Raising the minimum wage will increase people’s ability to shop at our business and local businesses across Missouri. We’ve seen that paying better wages is better business. Employees are happier at...

By Ashley Portillo
CBS News, November 15, 2024

At the start of the new year, some Colorado workers will get a bump in pay as Denver's minimum wage will go up 52 cents, from $18.29 to $18.81. ...

Pete Turner is the owner of Illegal Pete's. With more than a dozen locations, he employs about 500 people and has been advocating for higher minimum wage for years.

"I wondered, was there a way that we could make the wage more equitable and more livable and still run a successful business and grow?" said Turner.

At...

By Leah Rainwater
St. Joseph News Press, November 8, 2024

Missouri's Proposition A passed on Tuesday, causing businesses to take a deeper look into how to implement it into their business plan. ...

One local business owner is pleased by Prop A's passage. 

"That was one of the ballot issues that we just cared a lot about and felt strongly about," said Andi Montee, owner of Mokaska Coffee. "So you know, we were happy to support it and happy to see it pass."

Montee said employees at Mokaska already are getting paid more than...