If sharing economy companies can make it work, what about California and New York?

By Heesun Wee
CNBC, April 5, 2016

As more states move to lift the minimum wage, a small crop of businesses has surprisingly emerged as supporters of higher mandated pay and worker benefits — sharing economy companies. Start-ups in the on-demand space, which by and large recruit 1099 contractors, are opting instead to hire W-2 employees and offer perks including wages well above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour — plus benefits such as health care.

Boston-based Bridj (pronounced "bridge") is an on-demand...

So why do most chambers of commerce still oppose it?

By Lydia DePillis
Washington Post, April 4, 2016

Whenever minimum wage increases are proposed on the state or federal level, business groups tend to fight them tooth and nail. But actual opposition may not be as united as the groups' rhetoric might make it appear, according to internal research conducted by a leading consultant for state chambers of commerce.

The survey of 1,000 business executives across the country was conducted by LuntzGlobal, the firm run by Republican pollster Frank Luntz, and obtained by a liberal watchdog group...

By Kent Hoover
Washington Business Journal and numerous others, April 4, 2016

Here’s an eyebrow-raising story for you: 79 percent of business executives around the country support raising the minimum wage in their states. That’s according to a survey of 1,000 executives of businesses of all sizes conducted by Republican pollster Frank Lutz’s firm for the Council of State Chambers, a national organization for state chamber of commerce executives. The minimum wage question was part of a wide-ranging survey done for internal purposes, not for public consumption, but it was leaked to the Center for Media and Democracy...

By Margot Roosevelt
Orange County Register, April 4, 2016

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Monday a hefty, if gradual, expansion of California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, a boost that will affect an estimated 605,000 Orange County workers over the next seven years. ... The new law raises the current $10 an hour pay floor to $10.50 in January 2017 for employers with more than 25 workers. Smaller businesses will have until January 2018. The wage will rise by another 50 cents the following year. It will jump by $1 annually after that, until reaches...

By Peg Quann
Bucks County Courier Times, April 4, 2016

Exact Solar - a business headquartered in Lower Makefield with a warehouse in Newtown Township - was picked by Gov. Tom Wolf to announce his plan Monday to increase the minimum wage. Wolf chose the Bucks County business after learning that Mark Bortman, the firm's founder and president, signed up with Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a national organization of business owners and executives who support raising the minimum wage to at least $12 an hour by 2020.  ...

Bortman, who majored in economics and international relations in college...

By Chris English
Bucks County Courier Times, April 4, 2016

Hiking Pennsylvania's minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.15 an hour makes sense on a lot of levels, Gov. Tom Wolf told a small gathering at Exact Solar's warehouse in Newtown Township on Monday afternoon. "It would make for more motivated employees and less turnover," said Wolf, who recently issued an executive order hiking the minimum wage for state workers to $10.15 an hour.

"When I owned a business, we didn't have anyone that was anywhere near (as low as) the minimum wage," the Democratic governor continued. "Higher...

By Kate Morrissey
San Diego Union Tribune, April 2, 2016

The minimum wage law to be signed Monday by Gov. Jerry Brown is historic in its reach, as the government sets about securing raises for a huge swath of Californians in a giant progressive experiment in trickle-up economics. Hundreds of thousands of people in San Diego County stand to have their wages increase under the law, which boosts the state minimum wage to $15 from its current $10 over the next six years. ...

Proponents say low-income workers will have more buying power, while businesses enjoy...

By Riley McDermid
San Francisco Business Times, April 1, 2016

...  Eric Edelson, CEO of Fireclay Tile, told the Business Times Friday he isn't worried about the wage hike, calling it "the right thing" to do. Fireclay Tile has 88 employees, 24 in San Francisco, the rest in Aromas in the South Bay. About 70 percent of his workforce is paid hourly.

"We are aiming to get to this as a starting wage by 2018 internally," Edelson told the Business Times. Edleson said he and his management team remain hopeful that beyond just the mandate for...

By Denise Allabaugh
Scranton Times-Tribune, April 1, 2016

WILKES-BARRE — Gov. Tom Wolf stopped in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday morning during his “Jobs that Pay” tour, calling upon state legislators to pass a minimum wage increase for all workers in Pennsylvania. ...

During a visit to American Income Life — Simon Arias Agencies on Route 315, Mr. Wolf said all workers should be paid this higher rate instead of the current minimum wage in Pennsylvania: $7.25 an hour. Pennsylvania’s current minimum wage is one of the lowest in the country and lower than all surrounding states, Mr...

By Jessica Calefati
Monterey Herald, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Chico Enterprise Record, Marin Independent Journal, others, 3/31/16

SACRAMENTO -- A first-in-the-nation plan to gradually boost California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next six years won the Legislature’s approval today after rancorous floor debates on whether the move would strengthen or harm families and the economy. Senate Bill 3, authored by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, passed the Assembly on a 48-26 vote and cleared the Senate 26-12. The measure now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown, who quickly announced after the Senate vote that he would sign the legislation...

By Susan Adams
Forbes, March 31, 2016

Rick Karp calls himself a “bleeding heart liberal.” He’s a member of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a national non-profit that supports hikes in the minimum wage, including $15 in California, New York and Washington, DC, and a $12 federal minimum. At Cole Hardware, the San Francisco-based chain of five stores he took over from his father in 1978, Karp, 64, has long made a point of setting compensation for his lowest-paid hourly workers, including cashiers and stock clerks, above the required minimum. Among his...

Letter to the Editor By Sattie Clark
Sacramento Bee, March 31, 2016

As a small-business owner, I’m happy to see California moving to a statewide $15 minimum wage. This will be good for businesses and workers.

When workers are paid more, they’re able to spend more at local businesses. When workers have enough money to take care of themselves and their families, they are also less likely to miss work due to illness and lack of child care or a broken-down car they can’t afford to repair. They are less likely to utilize taxpayer-funded assistance...

By Bill O’Boyle
TImes Leader, March 31, 2016

WILKES-BARRE — Michael Clemente manages a small business and Thursday, with Gov. Tom Wolf at his side, he said Pennsylvania needs a raise. Clemente, regional director for Simon Arias Agencies’ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton office in the Cross Creek Pointe complex on Route 315, said the current state minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is not enough.

“Raising the minimum wage is good for business and the economy,” Clemente said. “Let’s not forget that workers are also customers. More money in the pockets of over 1 million workers will translate into...

East CountyToday, March 23, 2016

SAN FRANCISCO – The national movement to raise low-wage workers’ income took its biggest step forward today when a ballot initiative to gradually increase California’s minimum wage to $15 by 2021 officially qualified for the Nov. 8 ballot. ... The California Secretary of State’s office certified that initiative organizers had collected the necessary 402,468 signatures to be immediately placed on the ballot.

The Fair Wage Act of 2016 would raise California’s minimum wage to $11 in 2017 and then gradually increase it a dollar a year until it reaches $15 in 2021. Once...

By Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News, March 18, 2016

... Until recently, talk about manufacturing on Long Island often focused on paradise lost and the past. ... Yet lately, “Made in the U.S.A.” is starting to make strides... While aviation subcontractors still dot the landscape, generic drug makers are going strong along with firms making everything from windows to surgical masks. ...

Jon Cooper, president of Westbury-based Spectronics, which makes products using ultraviolet light, said the region’s skilled workforce has helped his firm grow.

“It’s great knowing that when we expand, we can find fellow Long Islanders to fill the...