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

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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...

By Algis Laukaitis
Lincoln Journal Star, August 15, 2015

The owners of a small business in Lincoln will get a chance to sit down with U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez Monday and talk about the minimum wage.

Dave Titterington, who owns the Wild Bird Habitat Stores with his wife, Linda, said he was contacted about a week ago to meet with Perez, who will be in Omaha to promote policies to increase wages of working class Americans.

Nebraska voters approved a minimum wage increase last year. The state minimum wage increased from $7.25 an...

Op-Ed By Cary Brunswick
Daily Star (Oneonta, NY), August 17, 2015

Fifty years ago, when I got my first summer job, the minimum wage was $1.50 an hour. ... It is hard to believe that it has risen only to today’s federal level of $7.25 with the way the cost of living has gone up. Back then gasoline was about 25 cents a gallon; bread was about 25 cents a loaf. Think about it. ...

That’s why many workers earning minimum wage, the working poor, qualify for public assistance despite having full-time jobs. That’s why...

By Marcia Heroux Pounds
Sun Sentinel (FL), August 5, 2015

JM Family Enterprises is raising its minimum wage to $16 an hour, nearly double Florida's $8.05 minimum — a pay hike for 400 workers. But the auto giant's shift is even more far-reaching: It also bumps up wages of about 600 hourly employees who already were making $16 an hour or more ...

"The industry is doing well; we are doing well; and we decided this was the right time," said Colin Brown, chief executive of JM Family, a collection of auto-related businesses based in...

How can a company have an award-winning green operation, pay one of the highest minimum wages to its employees, manufacture in the US and still be very profitable?

We turned to Earth Friendly products CEO, Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, to tell us how her late Greek immigrant father manage to create a green giant in the US, and how today that giant continues to expand under her leadership, while holding onto some of the best work and environmental ethics.

Earlier this year, Earth Friendly Products, the leading manufacturer in green household and commercial cleaning products, won the Safer Choice Partner of...