By Jody Knauss
PR Watch, Feb 20, 2015

To much fanfare, Walmart announced yesterday a program to raise wages for its lowest paid workers. ...

Holly Sklar of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage notes many Walmart workers rely on foodstamps and other forms of public assistance to make ends meet. And “given that the buying power of the 1968 federal minimum wage is nearly $11 [per hour] adjusted for inflation, Walmart should be setting higher targets than $9 in April 2015 and $10 in 2016,” she said.

By Diane Stafford and Mark Davis
Kansas City Star and KansasCity.com, Feb 19, 2015

The announcement Thursday by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that it is raising pay for many of its workers was another sign that the economy is improving and that companies are feeling the pressure from nationwide protests for higher wages. ...

Several large retailers, such as Costco, and other businesses have joined an organization called Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. Holly Sklar, the group’s chief executive, said it is “important that our nation’s largest private employer is finally beginning to follow many other companies in raising starting pay.” ...

By Hiroko Tabuchi
New York Times, Feb 19, 2015

Walmart, the largest private employer in the country, said on Thursday that it would increase wages for a half-million employees, a move that comes amid persistent scrutiny of its labor practices and high employee turnover. ...

Holly Sklar, chief executive of the Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a group of business leaders pressing to raise the minimum wage, called for further pay increases.

By John Finnerty, CNHI Harrisburg Correspondent
Sharon Herald (PA), February 11, 2015

HARRISBURG – ... Supporters of a higher minimum wage say larger payroll costs are mitigated in the long run. Better paid workers are more productive and less apt to change jobs, which lowers training costs, said Alissa Barron-Menza, vice president of the Business for a Minimum Wage campaign.

Barron-Menza’s group released data that show 61 percent of small business owners support an increase in the federal minimum wage.

The fact that dozens of other states have acted before the federal government affirms broad...

By Karen Shuey
Lancaster Online, LNP Newspapers, February 9, 2015

HARRISBURG — The large room in the basement of Grace United Methodist Church, a few blocks from the state Capitol, was packed Monday afternoon ...

Sen. Christine Tartaglione, a Democrat from Philadelphia and prime sponsor of the bill, was joined by the lieutenant governor, some of her colleagues, local business leaders, labor advocates and low-wage workers at the rally to raise the minimum wage. Under the proposed legislation, the state would incrementally raise the minimum wage rate to $10.10 per hour by 2016, after which...

By Christian Alexandersen
Penn Live, Patriot News, February 9, 2015

Chants of "Low wage is not OK" were heard around the Capitol Complex Monday during a march and rally to raise Pennsylvania's minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. About 200 people, including Lt. Gov. Michael Stack, met at the Grace Methodist Church for a morning of speeches and discussions before marching from State Street to Commonwealth Avenue. Once inside the Capitol, the Raise the Wage in PA marchers met with legislators ...

Rep. Patty Kim, D-Harrisburg, announced she was introducing a bill Wednesday that would raise...

By Katie Kyros
Fox 43 TV (York, PA), February 9, 2015

Minimum wage workers marched at the state Capitol led by Democratic lawmakers. They’re supporting Democrats’ bills in the state Senate and the House that would raise the wage to $10.10. ...

“Right now it’s a poverty wage, $7.25 an hour,” says Charlie Crystle, a supporter who is the CEO of Lancaster Food Company. “I doubt that you can live on that, most people certainly can’t.” ...

Read more and See Video
 

Letter to the Editor By Bob Kefauver
York Dispatch, February 4, 2015

Republican state Sen. Scott Wagner has introduced legislation to slightly raise the minimum wage. ... Wagner proposes to raise the state's $7.25 minimum wage by 50 cents a year over three years to $8.75. This is his calculated and cynical response to the growing bipartisan support for raising the wage floor to $10.10, which would give 1 million workers in Pennsylvania a raise and boost our economy. ...

When people earn a few more dollars for their hard work, they spend it in...

By Eric Morath
Wall Street Journal, Jan 20, 2015

... Congress hasn’t acted on the president’s calls to raise the minimum wage ... Still, the White House doesn’t view that as a failure. Instead, the administration is quick to highlight the number of states, cities and businesses that have increased their pay floors in recent years. Last year, 14 states passed minimum wage increases, including four via ballot initiatives. ...

Business Shout-Out
Mr. Obama may use the speech to once again salute businesses that voluntary pay their workers higher starting wages. Last year, he invited...

By Bill Poovey
Charleston Regional Business Journal and GSA Business (SC), Jan 20, 2015

The S.C. Chamber of Commerce opposes raising the $7.25 minimum wage .... The leader of the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce supports increasing the hourly minimum to $10.10, accompanied by tax credits for small businesses. ...

South Carolina is among five states that do not have a minimum wage. ... While Congress has voted down efforts to increase the $7.25 national minimum, President Barack Obama continues to push for $10.10. Last year following the State of the Union address Obama...

By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post, January 15, 2015

President Obama signed a presidential memorandum Thursday directing agencies to allow federal workers to take six weeks of advanced paid sick leave to care for a new child or ill family members. The move came as Obama also called on Congress to expand these benefits further by passing the Healthy Families Act, which would grant Americans seven days a year of paid sick time.

To highlight the importance of paid leave, Obama met Tuesday afternoon with three women in Charmington's, a cafe in Baltimore City whose owners are proponents...

By Nedra Pickler and Darlene Superville
Associated Press (AP), January 15, 2015

BALTIMORE (AP) — President Barack Obama launched a fresh push Thursday to bring paid sick and family leave to working parents and other private-sector employees as the White House unveiled proposals that could benefit tens of millions of people. ... "Forty-three million Americans do not get paid sick leave," Obama said after a lunchtime discussion about juggling work and family with a group of women at a Baltimore cafe that offers paid sick leave to its small workforce. "It's a pretty astonishing statistic."

By David Hudson
White House Blog, January 15, 2015

Earlier today, President Obama took a quick trip to Charmington's Café in North Baltimore, Maryland to talk with three women -- Amanda, Vika, and Mary -- before he announced new steps his Administration is taking to help working families across the country.

As the President noted at the café today, 43 million Americans still don't get paid sick leave. "That means that no matter how sick they are, or how sick a family member is, they may find themselves having to choose to be able...

Reuters, Jan 15, 2015

SEE VIDEO

By Ian Duncan and Christi Parsons
Baltimore Sun, Jan 15, 2015

Story Includes VIDEO

President Barack Obama surprised lunchtime diners at a Baltimore cafe Thursday with an unannounced stop to promote a proposal to guarantee paid sick leave for millions more American workers. After lunch at Charmington's in Remington, the president said families should not have to choose between their health and a paycheck.

In a launch that recalled his campaign last year to raise the minimum wage, he signed an order Thursday to give six weeks of paid maternity or paternity leave to federal...