By Heesun Wee
CNBC, Jan 12, 2016

As the broad U.S. economy finished 2015 with a big round of job creation, more pockets of Main Street are feeling optimistic about near-term prospects and planning to add new positions. ...

For now, small-business owners planning to hire include Gina Schaefer. She's co-owner of nine Ace Hardware stores in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Schaefer has plans to open two more locations in the new year and has recently hired about a dozen new workers, with plans to bring on about 12 more.

"The mood has gotten...

By Jason Daley
Entrepreur Magazine, January 9, 2016

Last April, the city of Seattle began rolling out an incremental minimum-wage increase. Employers with 500 workers or fewer would bump hourly wages up to $15 over the course of seven years; larger businesses would have to reach the mark in three years, with an immediate raise to $11 per hour. (The federal minimum wage is $7.25.) It has been a controversial law on many fronts, but no more so than in the franchise world. For the purposes of the law, any franchised business is considered a...

By Richard Correa
Providence Journal, Jan. 5, 2016

On Jan. 1, Rhode Island raised its minimum wage to $9.60. Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense whether you are a Republican, Democrat or independent. It should not be a partisan issue.

Across the political spectrum, voters strongly support raising the federal minimum wage. This includes 77 percent of Republicans, 87 percent of independents and 97 percent of Democrats, according to a recent poll by McLaughlin & Associates and Oxfam America.

Raising the minimum wage is a personal issue for me. I grew up in a...

Op-Ed By Richard Correa, Owner, Correa Agency
Also in the Detroit News, many more
Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense whether you are a Republican, Democrat or independent. It should not be a partisan issue. ...

By Kate Rogers
CNBC, Dec 31, 2015

From major cities like Los Angeles to big businesses like McDonald's, 2015 saw momentum for lifting pay above the federal level of $7.25 an hour. Effective Thursday and New Year's Day, 14 states will implement higher minimum wages through legislative action or automatic cost-of-living increases. ...

"Consumer demand and income levels have not recovered in the wake of the Great Recession and raising the minimum wage is a very effective tool in boosting consumer demand," said Alissa Barron-Menza, vice president of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage....

By Kate Rogers, CNBC

From major cities like Los Angeles to big businesses like McDonald's, 2015 saw momentum for lifting pay above the federal level of $7.25 an hour. Effective Thursday and New Year's Day, 14 states will implement higher minimum wages through legislative action or automatic cost-of-living increases. ...

"Consumer demand and income levels have not recovered in the wake of the Great Recession and raising the minimum wage is a very effective tool in boosting consumer demand," said Alissa Barron-Menza, vice president of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. ...

Plus, small businesses have...

MetroWest Daily News, Dec 31, 2015

Effective Jan. 1, 2016, Massachusetts will raise its current minimum wage to $10, with another one dollar increase on Jan. 1, 2017.

Massachusetts is one of 14 states that will raise their minimum wage the week of Jan. 1. In 21 states, minimum wage workers make the federal rate of $7.25 an hour, which comes to just $15,080 a year. The highest state minimum wages on Jan. 1 will still have less buying power than the minimum wage of 1968, nearly $11 in today's dollars.

The National Conference of...

Nightly Business Report, Produced by CNBC, Dec 25 and 28, 2015

KATE ROGERS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: From big corporations like Walmart to big cities like Los Angeles, 2015 was the year of the raise. With the federal minimum wage stagnant at $7.25 an hour since 2009, companies along with state and local governments have taken matters into their own hands. ...

ROGERS: But for wage advocates, raises aren't kicking in fast enough.

ALISSA BARRON-MENZA [Vice President, Business for a Fair Minimum Wage]: Consumer demand and income levels have not recovered in the wake of...

Cape Cod Today, Dec 26, 2015

The Massachusetts minimum wage rises Jan. 1 to a highest-in-the-nation $10 an hour and the state income tax will simultaneously fall to 5.1 percent from 5.15 percent ...

MASSACHUSETTS, CALIFORNIA WILL HAVE HIGHEST MINIMUM WAGES IN 2016

Massachusetts and California on Jan. 1, 2016 will be tied at $10 an hour for the highest state minimum wages, according to a national business group. The Massachusetts wage floor is rising from $9 an hour under a 2014 law that also requires the minimum wage here to increase to $11 an hour on Jan...

By Catherine Conlan 
Monster.com, December 6, 2015

The recession took a toll on businesses of all sizes and dampened salary levels as well. But as businesses have rebounded, so have compensation expectations for employees at small businesses, says Jose Laurel, director of recruitment services for G&A Partners, a human resources services provider in Houston. ...

The insights below will help your small business as you set 2016 salary levels. ...

Ripple Effects from an Increased Minimum Wage

The debate over an increased minimum wage, while often focused on large employers, affects small businesses as well...

By Nick McCrea
Bangor Daily News, Dec 15, 2015

BANGOR, Maine — Some members of the business community praised the city’s decision to increase the minimum wage locally, calling it an example the rest of the state should follow in order to help workers. Others interviewed Tuesday said the move overstepped local authority and could put the city at economic risk. The City Council voted 7-2 Monday night to boost the minimum wage in Bangor effective the first day of 2017, when it will jump from the statewide rate of $7.50 per hour to $8.25. The next year...

By Matt Murphy
State House News Service, Dec 15, 2015

... Under a separate law, the Massachusetts minimum wage rate will rise to $10 an hour on Jan. 1, and the Bay State will be tied with California for the nation's highest [state] minimum wage, according to the group Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. ...

Earlier this year, Senate leaders passed a proposal over objections from Republicans and some Democrats to pay for an expansion of the earned income tax credit for low-income families by freezing the income tax rate at 5.15 percent. The House rejected...

Trillium Asset Management, Dec 4, 2015

Trillium Asset Management, on behalf of our client The Congregational Council of Plymouth Church UCC of Seattle, recently filed a shareholder proposal at Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) urging the Board of Directors to “adopt principles for minimum wage reform, to be published by October 2016."

... Americans have become increasingly aware of the problem of low wages and economic inequality. For that reason, we believe that companies need to speak up in support of a minimum standard of living necessary for the health and general well-being of...

Eleanor Kennedy
Nashville Business Journal, Nov 20, 2015

Affluence is about more than money, and making sure prosperity is shared doesn’t mean just increasing income. Here’s the take from some local public and private sector leaders on improving income inequality in Nashville: ...

Sherry Stewart Deutschmann, CEO, LetterLogic:

Opponents of raising the minimum wage argue doing so would lead employers to eliminate jobs. That’s not how Sherry Stewart Deutschmann, CEO of a company with one of Nashville’s most-lauded business cultures, sees it.

“Forget about the ‘socially responsible’ reasons to increase the minimum wage. Instead, approach the issue from...

By Beth Musgrave
Lexington Herald Leader, Nov 19, 2015

PHOTO: Local business owner Freddy Peralta expressed support for raising Lexington’s minimum wage at an Urban County Council meeting Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015

Lexington’s Urban County Council on Thursday voted to raise the city’s minimum wage.

After listening to dozens of people testify for and against the ordinance for 90 minutes, the council voted 9-6 to gradually raise the minimum wage from the current federal minimum, $7.25 an hour, to $10.10 an hour over the next three years.

On July 1, the minimum wage would increase...