By Lauren Loricchio
Capital News Service, Sept 18, 2013

ANNAPOLIS – ... According to a U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report, Maryland is the fifth most expensive state to live in. But Maryland falls behind other states when it comes to minimum wage, said Matthew Hanson, program coordinator for Raise Maryland, an advocacy group that champions increasing the minimum wage. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have set a higher minimum wage, while New York lawmakers recently boosted their wage above the federal minimum. ...

Low wages have forced some workers to turn to organizations like...

Op-Ed By Lew Prince
Chicago Sun Times, Aug 22, 2013

My life is a tribute to the American Dream. My business partner and I started with 300 record albums and a $20 booth at the local farmers market. That was nearly 34 years ago. Vintage Vinyl has grown into a multimillion-dollar company with 23 employees. Based in St. Louis, we stage 150 in-store concerts a year and are the largest independent music store in the Midwest.

We built our business on wages above the minimum. This has given us long-term employees devoted to our company...

By Emily Jane Fox
CNN Money, Aug 6, 2013

[Includes chart showing very different pay/benefits for workers in similar positions at Wendy's, Walmart and Costco]

Can a company pay its workers well and also make money? ... Hundreds of dissatisfied workers at major American companies like Wal-Mart, McDonald's and Wendy's have joined protests nationwide in the past year demanding higher wages and better benefits.

By Dave Ross
My Northwest, August 2, 2013 

... According to the University of Minnesota, almost 27 percent of fast-food employees require assistance to buy groceries, almost twice the rate of the general population.

The average hourly wage at McDonald's, according to Glassdoor.com, which compiled reports from hundreds of employees, is $7.66 an hour, or about $16,000 per year.

So what would happen if you doubled that wage to $15? According to Business Week, it would likely wipe out profits at company-owned stores, unless prices went up. ...

But wait a minute - we have...

Oakland Press (MI), Aug 1, 2013

As of July 24, the federal minimum wage has not seen an increase in four years, since it was set at $7.25 an hour in 2009. The last time Michigan raised its minimum wage was in 2008 at $7.40 an hour.

Business for a Fair Minimum Wage supported the last increase in the federal minimum wage and is pushing for another. ...

Read more

By Adrienne T. Washington
Washington/Baltimore Afro, July 31, 2013 

Is it any wonder that hundreds of fast food workers across the country this week are walking out and striking at their jobs ... From California to New York their chant can be heard: “We can’t survive on $7.25.” ...

In Baltimore, city officials have not moved on the debate to raise the minimum wage. However, Amanda Rothschild, co-owner of Charmington’s coffee house, told the AFRO , “I want my employees concentrating on our customers, not worrying how they will afford to pay rent or put food on...

WPIX-TV, New York, July 29 2013

... Workers from several fast food franchises, organized by the New York City group Fast Food Forward, staged a one day walk out to coincide with similar protests in cities like Chicago and St. Louis. It was to shout the message that even though they work long hours, they are still being pulled under by the riptide of poverty. ...

A recent report by the Congressional Research service paints a more grim picture for the low wage worker. It shows that the purchasing power of the current minimum wage...

Oakland Press (MI), The Voice (MI), Advisor & Source (MI), July 27, 2013

As of July 24, the federal minimum wage has not seen an increase in four years, since it was set at $7.25 an hour in 2009. The last time Michigan raised its minimum wage of $7.40 an hour was in 2008.

Business for a Fair Minimum Wage supported the last increase in the federal minimum wage and is pushing for another. ...

Business for a Fair Minimum Wage will be launching a sign-on statement July 24 for business people supporting an increase...

By Mark Bittman
New York Times, July 26, 2013

... a rapidly increasing number of food industry and other retail workers are now fighting for basic rights: halfway decent pay, a real work schedule, the right to organize, health care, paid sick days, vacations and respect. Next week, organizers say, we’ll see a walkout of thousands of workers at hundreds of stores in at least seven cities, including New York and Chicago. ...

They don’t have much else. Those making minimum wage ($7.25) and just above have less buying power than their peers did in the...

Business Record (Des Moines, IA), July 25, 2013

A nationwide coalition of small business owners is advocating an increase in the federal minimum wage as a route to building a stronger economy. At a press conference Wednesday in Washington, D.C., representatives with Business for a Fair Minimum Wage marked the fourth full year since the minimum wage was last increased. Adjusted for inflation, the current $7.25 per hour minimum wage is lower than it was in 1956 at $8.58, or in 1968 when its inflation-adjusted value was $10.74, the organization said.

Among the coalition's members...

Op-Ed By Jon Cooper
The Hill, July 24, 2013. Distributed by American Forum. Detroit News, Houston News group, New Jersey Today, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Fall River Herald News, many more 

As a business owner who runs a manufacturing company with 150 employees, I strongly support increasing the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at just $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009. It will provide concrete benefits to businesses and will strengthen our overall economy.

Fair wages are part of the formula for success at my company, Spectronics Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of...

Op-Ed By Jim Wellehan
Portland Press Herald, Maine Voices, July 24, 2013

Our tax base and social safety net would benefit, and investment in schools and infrastructure would rise.

AUBURN — Lamey-Wellehan, the shoe company my dad started in 1914, has grown over the years with longtime employees who enjoyed their job and lived a good life.
Their children were friends of mine growing up, and we were one community. We felt safe and welcome in each other's neighborhoods and homes. That is a culture worth preserving.

It's a culture that depends on people believing...

MSNBC All In With Chris Hayes, July 24, 2013

WATCH SHOW

Excerpt:

CHRIS HAYES: Joining me now is Lew Prince, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis. He met with Pres. Obama along with other small business owners last year. Shanita Simon Toussaint, a shift supervisor at a KFC in Brooklyn, New York and Dorian Warren, an assistant professor at Columbia University and specialist in labor law. Great to have you all here. 

Lew, the argument we hear coming from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce whenever minimum wage is on the table is, you`re going...

By W. Scott Bailey
San Antonio Business Journal, July 24, 2013 

Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a national network of owners and executives, is calling on federal officials to raise the nation’s minimum wage to help strengthen the economy.

Backers of that plan say the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is lower than it was in 1956 at $8.58, when adjusted for inflation. As a result, current minimum-wage workers have less buying power than their counterparts did decades ago.

“We cannot build a strong economy with wages worth less than they...