By Ian Froeb
St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 16, 2015

Danny Meyer, the St. Louis native who over the past 30 years has become one of the country’s most influential restaurateurs, announced on Wednesday that he will eliminate tipping at all 13 restaurants owned by his Union Square Hospitality Group. Menu prices at the New York City restaurants, which range from barbecue joint Blue Smoke to such upscale establishments as Gramercy Tavern and the Modern, will increase to account for service.

Meyer is not the first restaurateur to eliminate tipping, but his stature in the...

By Ryan Hoffman
Citizen Telegram. Also Aspen Times, Oct 14, 2016

Feelings toward a constitutional amendment that would raise Colorado’s minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2020 vary depending on where you are on the Western Slope. ...

Fore nearly 13 years Laurie Raymond has been a small business owner, running High Tails Dog & Cat Outfitters Inc. in Glenwood Springs.

During that time, Raymond said she has made it a point to try to pay her few employees as much as she can while ensuring the business remains profitable.

“I’ve never paid my...

By Aubrey Nagle
PhillyVoice, October 7, 2015

Last year, longtime friends Charlie Crystle and Craig Lauer took a big leap by starting their own business. Crystle, a serial entrepreneur and advocate for accessibility to healthy food, and Lauer, a former brand strategist and lifelong foodie, formed The Lancaster Food Company.

But LFC isn't just selling organic breads, sunflower seed spreads and maple syrup. Crystle and Lauer created the brand to fulfill not only their mutual love of food but to support their local community. Both founders have a passion for good, healthy food and understand its...

Nightly Business Report (NBR)
Produced by CNBC, September 7, 2015

WATCH VIDEO Minimum Wage begins at 7:50 Watch on YouTube

SUE HERERA, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. And welcome to a special Labor Day edition of NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT. I`m Sue Herera. Tyler is off tonight.

Labor Day, a day dedicated to the American worker. It`s the perfect time to discuss employment, a key gauge of economic health that everyone has an eye on. Tonight, we`ll examine the important issues that lie ahead for the job market from minimum wage to where the...

By Kate Rogers
CNBC, Sept 4, 2015

The fight to raise the minimum wage has been gaining traction, with cities including Los Angeles and Seattle independently raising pay above the federal minimum. As of now, 29 states and Washington, D.C. have wages above the federal floor of $7.25 an hour that hasn't been raised in six years. ... Perhaps a sign of what's to come, four red states—Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota—last year increased wages in mid-term ballot measures. ...

"While it's important that numerous states and cities have enacted increases, we need to...

By Dan Voorhis
The Wichita Eagle, September 5, 2015

...  The move for a minimum wage increase from the current $7.25 an hour is gaining momentum nationally. ... Some of the movement is also coming from big business. Six years into the economic recovery, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and others – facing high employee turnover and complaints of poor customer service – announced pay increases to hire and retain better employees. Wal-Mart raised its lowest wage to $9 an hour this year and will move that to $10 an hour in February.

Battle of philosophies

There is...

By Kate Rogers
CNBC, September 4, 2015

Featuring Bar Marco and Earth Friendly Products/ECOS

WATCH VIDEO

By Stacy M. Brown
Baltimore Times, Sept 4, 2015

Hundreds of businesses and organizations— including many in Baltimore— are signing the online petition, “Business for a Fair Minimum Wage statement” and actively pushing for increases locally and nationally. ...

“Local businesses like ours thrive and grow when customers have money to spend,” said Ned Atwater, the owner of Atwater’s, a Charm City-based maker of traditional foods. Atwater’s has more than 145 employees in and around Baltimore and the establishment earned Baltimore Magazine’s 2015 Best of Baltimore awards.

“Raising the minimum wage will increase...

By Christopher S. Rugaber
Associated Press (AP), Sept 4, 2015

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. unemployment fell to a seven-year low of 5.1 percent last month, but hiring slowed — a mixed bag of news that offers few clues to whether the Federal Reserve will raise rock-bottom interest rates later this month. The Labor Department report, issued Friday, was closely watched because it will be the last snapshot of the job market before the Fed meets in two weeks. ...

Even the slip in hiring last month may not end up as bad as it looks...

By Jason Rosenbaum
St. Louis Public Radio (KWMU), Sept 2, 2015

When St. Louis last week started the process to raise its minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2018, some policymakers and activists hoped the move would spur St. Louis County to follow suit. ... But...for weeks, St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger has said that the county’s charter doesn’t allow for a minimum wage within its 90 municipalities. And he said while it’s possible to impose a minimum wage hike in unincorporated St. Louis County, he’s said that type of action isn’t practical....

By Eileen Godin
Times Leader (PA), August 28, 2015

Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center employee Katlyn Wolfe recently took a second job before her company’s minimum wage hike announcement last week. ... Wolfe along with over 1,000 other Geisinger Health System employees learned how raising its minimum wage to $10 would affect them. The monetary impact, which will range from $500 to $4,000 annually, was a voluntary move that management said will enable the organization “to take care of their employees.” ... Some of the fields included in the wage increase are dietary aides, housekeeping...

By Grant Bissell and Associated Press
KSDK TV News Channel 5 and Associated Press, August 25, 2015

ST. LOUIS (AP) – On Tuesday, St. Louis' governing board perfected a bill to raise St. Louis' minimum wage to $11 by 2018. An alderman said the St. Louis Board of Aldermen will take a final vote on Friday. ... The bill that Aldermen will vote on would raise the minimum wage in the City of St. Louis to $8.25 an hour on October 15, 2015. The wages would rise to $9 on January 1, 2016, $10 on...

By Gil Smart
Lancaster Online, Aug 19, 2015

... If the key to rising out of poverty is a job that pays a decent wage, where are city residents to find that in Lancaster? Don’t get me wrong – there are some places. The Lancaster Food Company is one (disclaimer: I know co-founder Charlie Crystle, but that’s irrelevant to this point, as stated on the company’s web site):

We feel strongly about reducing poverty in the U.S., and feel we can do our part here in Lancaster by paying better than living wages, and...

By Ian Hoppe
Birmingham News, August 18, 2015

This morning, the Birmingham City Council voted to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 over the next two years. AL.com reached out to the owners of several Birmingham businesses for comment on the changes, which are not slated to take effect until July 2016, when the city's wage floor will increase to $8.50 an hour. ...

According to statistics compiled by the National Employment Law Project, roughly 19 percent of Birmingham workers - 40,000 people - earn less than $10.10. ...

Danny Ray Winter, owner and operator of both...

By Janice Podsada
Omaha World-Herald, August 18, 2015

Omaha was the starting point Monday for U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez’s national tour to highlight the Labor Department’s key initiatives, including raising the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020 from the current $7.25 an hour. Perez ... gave Nebraska a thumbs-up for successfully passing a minimum wage ballot measure last November. The measure, which won easy voter approval, raised the state minimum wage to $8 an hour this year and will boost the state minimum to $9 an hour in January.

Nebraska, Perez...