American Forum: Mark Jaffe, Minimum wage increase will improve the business climate
Op-Ed By Mark S. Jaffe
President and CEO, Greater New York Chamber of Commerce
Distributed by American Forum, June 2012
Our mission at the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce is to improve the business climate and quality of life in New York. And raising the minimum wage will do just that.
That’s right – a minimum wage increase will improve our business climate, not hurt it. It will help local businesses grow and prosper. And it will improve the quality of life for New Yorkers.
The Greater New York Chamber serves 25,000 business and...
Albany Times Union: Margot Dorfman, USWCC, Wage hike would help women
By Margot Dorfman, CEO, U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce
Albany Times Union, June 9, 2012
While some portray debate over the minimum wage as a fight between business and workers, raising the minimum wage is in reality good for both. The business owners I talk with every day believe that, far from hurting their businesses, raising the minimum wage in fact helps small businesses and the broader economy.
The number one problem for our member businesses is that the recovery is slow because sales are still weak. Too many of their customers have been out of...
Buffalo News: Jonathon Welch, Minimum wage increase would help small businesses
Op-Ed By Jonathon Welch
Buffalo News, June 6, 2012
The best way for state legislators in New York to support small businesses is to help us get our customers back.
Unfortunately, many policy-makers in Albany are trying to support small businesses by blocking policies needed to boost consumer demand. A case in point is the current proposal to raise the state minimum wage, which the Republican leadership in the State Senate has refused to consider even after the Assembly approved an increase.
Read more:
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial-page/from-our-readers/another-voice/article889908.ece
City & State: How Much Can $1.25 Change Someone's Life?
Cover Story By Laura Nahmias
City & State, June 4, 2012
Five days a week Michelle Dawkins wakes up at 2:30 a.m. and drives from her Bronx apartment to begin her shift at JFK Airport, ferrying wheelchair-bound passengers among the airport’s eight terminals. From 4:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Dawkins—whom her co-workers affectionately call “Mother Love”—will make $7.25 an hour, or $58 for the day. If Dawkins, 42, doesn’t require an unpaid sick day, and if the airport needs her for 40 hours each week—which is not always a certainty during the lean fall and winter...
Westchester/Fairfield Business Journals: In New York, a Wage Hike Tug of War
By John Golden
Westchester County and Fairfield County Business Journals, June 1, 2012
Support for increasing New York’s minimum wage has grown among business advocacy groups and business owners and executives statewide in the closing weeks of a legislative session in Albany ...
In Westchester County, the wage hike has not been a high-priority issue for the two largest business groups here, The Business Council of Westchester and Westchester County Association. Neither has taken a position on the bill passed by the Democrat-controlled Assembly in May, which would raise the state’s minimum hourly wage from...
Huffington Post: Now, Not Later: Increasing New York State's Minimum Wage
By Andrew Wilkes
Huffington Post, June 1, 2012
Governor Cuomo has an opportunity to exercise economic leadership on behalf of the Empire State's most vulnerable families. Despite his characterizations, raising the state's minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 can and should be done. According to a recent Siena College poll, 79 percent of New York State voters share this sentiment. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver champions an increased minimum wage. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos opposes it. Governor Cuomo, then, is the difference maker. Given his political capital, deal-making abilit, and high approval rating, Albany's chief...
Buffalo News: On minimum wage, let's end the absurdity
By Rod Watson
Buffalo News, May 31, 2012
From the “you can’t make this stuff up” department:
The State Senate’s Republican leader opposes hiking New York’s minimum wage because paying workers more means they’d lose some government benefits.
Really. That’s among Majority Leader Dean Skelos’ objections to the idea that New Yorkers be able to lift themselves out of poverty by working hard. ...
The public knows that, as evidenced by Wednesday’s Quinnipiac University poll showing wide support for the higher wage floor. Some Buffalo entrepreneurs know it, too.
Business issues are “much bigger than...
Daily Gazette (Schenectady): Down to Business
A late push for higher state wage
By Marlene Kennedy
Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY), May 31, 2012
With less than a month left in the 2012 legislative session, there’s a good chance a higher minimum wage won’t become law in New York anytime soon.
That didn’t dissuade business owners and advocates from holding a conference call with reporters last week to talk up their support for raising the state’s base wage for hourly workers. “This is something whose time is past due,” said Mark Jaffe, president and CEO of the Greater New York Chamber of...
Syracuse Post Standard: Martin Rothenberg, Hike in minimum wage good for business, good for workers
By Martin Rothenberg
Opinion Today, Syracuse Post-Standard, May 31, 2012
I have been a small business owner in Syracuse since 1991. My first company, Syracuse Language Systems, developed and sold multimedia software, and grew from a start-up with a few employees to 120 employees when it was sold. My present company, Glottal Enterprises, makes medical electronics for speech and voice diagnosis and correction that is sold worldwide. It presently has five employees, but we are growing.
Neither company has ever seen fit to pay only the minimum wage. As I found out quickly at Syracuse...