By Megan Brockett
Capital News Service, Feb 11, 2014

Business owners, low-wage workers, economists and community leaders crowded into an overflowing House committee room Tuesday to offer testimony alongside Gov. Martin O’Malley on a handful of proposals seeking to change Maryland’s minimum wage. ... More than 100 witnesses signed up to testify both in support and opposition of a minimum wage increase, lining the walls of the committee room early on and trickling into an overflow room set up down the hall. ...

Other supporters, like Charmington’s Cafe owner Amanda Rothschild, said that a minimum wage...

By Dave Jamieson
Huffington Post, Feb 11, 2014

WASHINGTON -- On a recent afternoon, Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez found himself getting a five-minute tutorial in paint-mixing at an Ace Hardware store in downtown Washington, D.C. The crash course wasn't for any personal home-improvement purposes. Now seven months into his post, Perez is playing the role of ambassador for a raise to the federal minimum wage ... "How did I do?" Perez asked his tutor, Christina Amaya, as he pulled a quart of purple paint out of the mixer.

Amaya earns $13 per hour as an...

By Frederick Reese
Mint Press News, February 10, 2014 

… Per the Huffington Post, half of Wal-Mart’s hourly associates in the U.S. make less than $10 per hour, with most who make more having been noted for extraordinary service.

“I pay low wages. I can take advantage of that. We’re going to be successful, but the basis is a very low-wage, low-benefit model of employment,” Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart once said. ...

MintPress conducted a study in an attempt to find evidence that would support a base increase in salary for the nation’s...

By Ricardo Whitaker
Guilford Gazette (MD), 2/5/2014 

GUILFORD, MD - Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) is in favor of raising the federal minimum wage. In a small business forum held this week at British American Auto Care on Berger Road in [Columbia], MD, Mr. Cardin met with Brian England, the owner of British American, and other small business owners to discuss his support for a higher minimum wage. ...

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By Stacy Perman
New York Times, Feb 5, 2014

... there are also business owners who support the increases. These owners suggest that businesses actually benefit from paying higher wages because of reduced turnover and the additional money that goes into local economies.

Amanda Rothschild, co-owner of Charmington’s, a cafe in Baltimore, calls the arguments against raising the minimum “shortsighted.” Since opening in 2010, the cafe has paid new hires $8 an hour, more than the current $7.25 minimum (they also earn tips).

“I think those against increases underestimate how business success is tied to employee...

By Dan Ritter
Wall St. Cheat Sheet, Feb 4, 2014

America may have one of the strongest economies in the world, but it is still highly dysfunctional. Those who participate in it know that it is easy to become trapped by debt, that it is easy to become stuck in a low-paying job with stagnant wages, and that it is easy to become a pessimist about personal financial situations and the economic outlook at large. ...

How to address this problem has been the subject of an enormous amount of debate.... Because of the stagnant...

By Ted Griggs and Timothy Boone
Baton Rouge Advocate, February 3, 2014

Lifting federal contract workers’ minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, as President Barack Obama proposes, isn’t expected to affect contractors very much, but extending that pay to workers across the board would be big, especially in Louisiana where a high percentage of workers make minimum wage or less. Hundreds of thousands of Louisiana residents will benefit and that could boost the state’s tax revenue, said Jan Moller, director of Louisiana Budget Project. ...

Sarah Covert, who owns Sarah the Pet Sitter in New Orleans, said...

Wall Street Journal, Feb 3, 2014

With the minimum wage shaping up to be one of the hottest issues to watch in 2014, The Wall Street Journal’s Damian Paletta discusses the issue with a group of entrepreneurs and economic experts in this recent, live Q&A.

Panelists include Gina Schaefer, owner of “A Few Cool Hardware Stores,"  David Neumark, professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine; John Schmitt, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research; and Casey Lakey, owner and general manager of Trainer’s Club gym.

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ABC News, WLS-TV Chicago, February 2, 2014

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin says it's time for the state and the country to have a "serious discussion" about raising the minimum wage. ... He was joined by minimum wage employees and a Chicago-area business owner who explained why he thinks he's able to retain employees.

"Our defacto minimum wage right now is $10 an hour, and we're talking about getting that up to $11.50 because we recognize how important it is that when people come to work they feel part of the community that we're talking about, they feel...

By E.J. Olsen, Jan 31, 2014

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, State Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, and State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor met with Zingerman’s Deli staff and Ann Arbor business owners at the Deli yesterday afternoon to discuss proposed increases in the state and federal minimum wage. The Congressional Representatives chose to meet at Zingerman’s following a recent trip by Paul Saginaw to Washington D.C., where he, along with other national business leaders, met with U.S. Secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez. ...

Also present to express their support for the proposed legislation were...

By Josh Hicks
Washington Post, January 30, 2014

Labor Secretary Thomas Perez visited a locally-owned Ace Hardware in the nation’s capital on Thursday morning to push for an increase in the federal minimum wage. ...

The hardware store, located in the Mt. Vernon Square neighborhood, pays its employees at least $10 an hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25, while the D.C. rate is $8.25.

Perez described the shop’s owner, Gina Schaefer, as a “remarkably visionary business owner,” saying she understands that “paying folks a fair wage is the essence of growing a business.” He...

By Gina Schaefer
Work In Progress, Dept of Labor Blog, Jan 30, 2014

Gina Schaefer, is the owner of A Few Cool Hardware Stores, a group of nine Ace Hardware stores in Washington, D.C., and Maryland.

As a small business owner, I am a firm believer that raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do. It will mean more money in the hands of those who need it, allowing them to pay for daily necessities without sacrificing their other basic needs. And increased wages means more money in peoples’ pockets that they then...

By Melinda Henneberger
Washington Post,  January 30, 2014

The cameras were rolling as Labor Secretary Thomas Perez asked Daniel Whitney how he likes his job at Ace Hardware in the Mount Vernon Square area, where all employees are paid more than the minimum wage. If you guessed that Whitney’s response was positive, you win a free key. ... Sales associates in green vests and big smiles showed Perez how to carve a key, mix a quart of paint and cut a piece of Plexiglas. But the real point of the visit to the locally owned retailer was to...

By Thomas E. Perez, US Secretary of Labor
Huffington Post, Jan 30, 2014

It's time to give America a raise. ... Forward-looking companies get that this makes smart business sense. That's why the president and I visited a Costco store in Lanham, Md., the morning after his speech. Costco pays their workers good wages with benefits, while selling good products at competitive prices and remaining quite profitable. ...

But they're not the only company following this model. I just got back from a visit to the 5th Street Ace Hardware store in Washington, where all...