Business
Support for Higher Minimum Wage
"It
is but equity...that they who feed, clothe and
lodge the whole body of the people, should have
such a share of the produce of their own labor
as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed
and lodged." -- Adam Smith, The Wealth of
Nations, 1776
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Montana
Business Helping Raise Montana Window Sticker
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News
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FOR RECENT NEWS, Please Visit Business for a Fair Minimum Wage: http://www.businessforafairminimumwage.org/newsroom
James O'Toole and Edward E. Lawler III, Forbes, Low Costs Versus High Wages?, 4/25/07. Although offering minimal wages and benefits is the most common way companies try to lower their costs, our recent study of American management practices reveals that such bottom feeding may not be the most effective strategy. In fact, low wages paradoxically generate a variety of negative employee behaviors that add to the overall cost of doing business."
Ithaca Journal (NY), Living wage employers, 3/28/07
Business NH Magazine, Brother, Can NH Spare $7.25?, February 2007
Albor Ruiz, Minimum wage hike would be a good start, Daily News (NY), 2/1/07
John Godfrey, Wall Street Journal, Wage increase clears Senate hurdle, 1/30/07. "Jim Sinegal, chief executive of Costco Wholesale Corp., backs the wage increase... The U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce supports it. 'We all lose when American workers are underpaid,' said Margot Dorfman, CEO of the U.S. Women's Chamber."
Lori Montgomery, Washington Post, Maverick Costco CEO joins push to raise minimum wage, 1/30/07. "The chief executive of Costco Wholesale, the nation's largest wholesale club, yesterday became the most prominent member of a new organization of business owners and executives pressing Congress to approve an increase in the federal minimum wage."
Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press, Proposed minimum wage increase divides business, 1/30/07. "On Monday, a coalition of business owners, including Costco Wholesale Corp. chief executive officer Jim Sinegal, called on Congress to pass the minimum wage increase, arguing that it would help business by increasing the purchasing power of workers... 'It's long overdue,' Sinegal said in an interview. 'In my view, it is the best thing for the country.'"
Press Release: Business Owners From Every State Say Higher Minimum Wage Helps Business: Costco CEO, Small Business Majority, US Women's Chamber of Commerce, Business Leaders Nationwide Urge Senate To Raise Minimum Wage, 1/29/07
Press Release: Hundreds of Business Leaders Tell Congress To Raise Minimum Wage, 1/19/07
Tom Blackburn, Weak argument against raising the minimum wage, Cox News Service, 1/16/07
Timothy Eagan, New York Times, For $7.93 an hour, its worth a trip across the state line, 1/11/07. "Just eight miles separate this town on the Washington side of the state border from Post Falls on the Idaho side. But the towns are nearly $3 an hour apart in the required minimum wage. Washington pays the highest minimum wage in the nation, just under $8 an hour, and Idaho has among the lowest... But instead of shriveling up, small-business owners in Washington say they have prospered far beyond their expectations... The state's major business lobby, the Association of Washington Business, is no longer fighting the minimum wage law, which is adjusted every year in line with the consumer price index... Washington's robust economy [added] nearly 90,000 jobs last year... During a recession five years ago, the [Assc. of Washington Business] had argued that Washington's high minimum wage law would send businesses fleeing to Idaho. The group sent out a news release with a criticism of the law from Jon Fazzari, who owns a family run pizza business in Clarkston, Wash., just minutes from the Idaho town of Lewiston. But now Mr. Fazzari says business has never been better, and he has no desire to move to Idaho."
Angus Loten, Inc., Minimum wage increase: A blow to small businesses? While critics say the House bill will hurt business owners, many companies are already paying higher wages, 1/10/07. "Mark McCurry, the president of A1 Express, an Atlanta-based delivery service, said all of his 100 employees, including several dozen drivers, are paid above the state minimum of $5.15 an hour. 'I don't know how you could pay anyone less than five bucks an hour in good conscience,' McCurry said."
Register-Guard
(OR) Editorial, Testing
wage theory, 11/24/06. "Oregon voters
launched an experiment in 2002 when they approved
an increase in the minimum wage, with yearly adjustments
for inflation. The state's minimum wage of $7.50
an hour will increase to $7.80 on Jan. 1, almost
50 percent higher than the $5.15 per hour set
by national law. For four years, Oregon has tested
the theory that minimum wage increases result
in job losses - particularly if a lower-priced
labor pool is available elsewhere. So far, Oregon
continues to enjoy a robust rate of employment
growth, despite the widening gap between the state
and federal minimum wage rates."
Dow
Jones MarketWatch, Minimum
wage, mixed impact, 11/24/06
Shawn
Zeller, Congressional Quarterly, The
New Business Wage Boosters, 11/17/06
Press
Release: Business
Leaders and Minimum Wage Organizers on Landslide
Victories, What's Next? Post-Election Teleconference
Highlights and Replay Available, 11/13/06
Atlanta
Journal Constitution Editorial, Minimum
wage increase overdue: Help for lowest-paid workers
won't put burden on businesses that employ them,
11/12/06. "Oregon has the second-highest
minimum wage in the country ($7.50 an hour, going
to $7.80 in January). But employment growth remains
healthy even in industries that rely on minimum-wage
workers, The Wall Street Journal reported this
month. The higher minimum also has been good for
business, according to Dan Gardner, who heads
Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries. Instead
of "saving for a Hawaiian vacation,"
as Gardner told the Journal, low-wage workers
recycle their earnings into the economy. "Minimum-wage
workers," he told the newspaper, "are
the only class of workers you can give a raise
to and guarantee that they're going to spend the
money and spend it in the local economy."
That, too, produces a pro-business climate."
AFL-CIO
Blog, Even
business leaders support a minimum wage boost,
11/6/06
Rocky
Mountain News, Business
Briefs: Business owners' group supports wage measure,
11/3/06
Press
Release: Business Owners, CEOs Say Higher Minimum Wage Good for Business, 10/31/06
AXcess
News, Higher
minimum wage top issue in November elections,
10/31/06
Diane
Stafford, Kansas City Star, [Business]
Backing
for a living wage, 10/19/06. "Earnestine
Kennedy can't imagine thinking that anyone should
be expected to work for $5.15 an hour. Kennedy,
John Scott and David Scott are among many small-business
owners and operators who aren't toeing what is
perceived as the 'business' position against proposed
increases in the mandated federal or state wage
floors."
Chris
Farrell, Business Week, Raise
the minimum wage: It's the least that can-and
should-be done for low-income workers, 10/17/06
Hundreds
of Economists Say Raise
the Minimum Wage, Economic Policy Institute,
10/06
Columbia
Missourian, Some
Columbia business owners voice support for minimum
wage increase, 10/17/06. "Columbia business
owners Rhonda Perry and Kathleen Anger spoke in
front of Kent’s Floral Gallery on Broadway.
Perry, who owns Patchwork Family Farms, said she
supports the ballot measure because of the yearly
increase for inflation. 'Gas prices haven’t
stood still, health care prices haven’t
stood still,' Perry said. 'The only thing that
has stood still is the minimum wage.'"
Policy
Matters Ohio and Center for American Progress:
Room
To Grow:
Ohio Can Afford a Higher Minimum Wage, 9/06
Release:
[Labor Commissioner] Gardner
announces a 30-cent cost of living increase for
Oregon's minimum wage workers, 9/15/06. “'It
is an important time to remember that almost every
dime of these workers’ pay goes directly
to local businesses for food, gas and clothing,'
said Gardner."
Chicago
Tribune, Visiting
officials say wage laws didn't hurt their cities,
8/17/06. "Officials from Santa Fe and San
Francisco told Chicago aldermen...that minimum-wage
ordinances have had no negative effects on their
cities and have not scared off big retailers...
Santa Fe Mayor David Coss [said] 'Unemployment
is low.... Business growth is strong.' The message
was similar from Supervisor Tom Ammiano of San
Francisco."
Time,
Where
to get a pay raise, 8/21/06. "One keen
observer of the living-wage battle has been David
Coss, mayor of Santa Fe, N.M., which mandated
a living wage in 2004. 'We were also told the
sky was going to fall,' he says, 'but all we've
seen is strong growth.' With the city's $9.50
wage floor set to rise to $10.50 in 2008, Target
and Sam's Club are thriving. Wal-Mart is even
building a superstore. 'You're going to see more
and more municipalities taking matters into their
own hands,' Coss says. 'Poverty just isn't a necessary
ingredient for economic development.'"
New Mexican, Study:
[Santa Fe] Minimum-wage law hasn't hurt
job growth, 8/11/06
Robyn
E. Blumner, St. Petersburg Times (FL),
Being good
to workers is also good for the bottom line,
8/6/06
ABC News, Costco CEO Finds Pro-Worker Means Profitability, 8/2/06
Press
Release: Concerned
Massachusetts Business Leaders Back Minimum Wage
Increase: Thirty CEOs, Directors and Business
Owners Issue Statement Favoring $8 Wage, 7/25/06.
"'Raising the Massachusetts minimum wage
will have a positive impact on families, communities
and local economies across the state,' remarked
Doug Hammond, President and CEO of Relief Resources
in Hatfield and one of the statement’s signers...
'As business owners we need to recognize
that this increase in the minimum wage is an investment
in our future as well as theirs."... Arnold
Hiatt, former Chair and CEO of the Stride Rite
Corporation, and one of the statement’s
signers exclaimed, 'In order to create a better
tomorrow, we’ve got to plan responsibly
today. Increasing the minimum wage will help
Massachusetts create a future with a strong economy
and a stable workforce.'"
Massachusetts
Business Leaders' Statement on the Minimum Wage,
7/25/06. "We, the undersigned local
business leaders, support an increase in Massachusetts’
minimum wage to $8.00 per hour over the next two
years... We know that raising the minimum
wage will help to promote social justice and economic
prosperity and will ensure that low-wage workers
receive a fair day’s pay for the hard work
they do each day... We expect that the higher
wages...will provide a boost to local economies.
That is, we anticipate that low-wage workers will
spend their pay raises at businesses in the neighborhoods
where they live and work, purchasing groceries
or clothing for themselves or their children,
putting gas in their cars, or simply paying the
rent..."
MetroWest
Daily News (MA), Local
businesses back minimum wage increase, 7/26/06.
"A group of MetroWest area business leaders
issued a statement backing a state minimum-wage
increase to $8 an hour yesterday, rejecting the
characterization of business groups opposing the
hike as portrayed by the media... 'There
was that characterization that business opposed
and labor supported a minimum-wage increase,'
said [Doug] Hammond. '..For our businesses to
be successful, we need our employees to be successful.'"
Steve
Strauss: Ask an Expert, USA Today, Low-ball
your employees, and you do the same to customers,
7/24/06. "With the federal minimum wage still
stuck at a disgustingly paltry $5.15 an hour (the
same since 1997), employees at In-N-Out Burger
make almost double that... If In-N-Out was only
worried about keeping its overhead low, it would
not have created the kind of business where my
family wants to stop there every time we get near
one... They create incredible customer,
and employee, loyalty."
Cleveland
Plain Dealer, Wage
hike sparks economic gain, researchers
say, 7/21/06. "Whether it's Oregon apple
pickers plucking $7.50 an hour or New York dishwashers
clearing $6.75 an hour, states that have hiked
the minimum wage above the federal level have
netted economic gains, not losses."
Marietta
Times Editorial, Minimum
wage must be increased, 7/13/06. "If
people making the minimum wage have more money
on which to live, they are more likely to make
purchases or otherwise support those very businesses
worrying about their payrolls."
Poll:
National Consumers League/Fleishman-Hillard Communications,
American Consumers' Definition of the Socially
Responsible Company, 5/31/06. Snapshot: 76 percent
of American consumers believe "how well a
company treats/pays employees influences what
they buy." Consumers said "commitment
to employees" is the strongest proof of corporate
responsibility and it is important for companies
to ensure that workers "are paid a living
wage." Poll.
Executive
Summary. Press
Release.
Brian
Smith, Blackfoot River Brewery owner, Helena,
Montana, Beartooth NBC News, Minimum
Wage Rally, 5/16/06
Poll:
Minimum
Wage Has No Impact on Small Business: Wells Fargo-Gallup
Small Business Index shows nearly half support
increasing the minimum wage, 5/9/06
• Wells
Fargo-Gallup Small Busines Index PDF
Sacramento
Business Journal, Gallup:
Many little firms favor hike in federal minimum
wage, 4/21/06
Rutland
Herald, Vermont
Businesses for Social Responsibility, Forum to
focus on social responsibility, 4/9/06
News
& Observer (Raleigh) Editorial, Wages
at the bottom, 1/9/06
Asheville
Citizen Times Editorial, Raising
minimum wage in N.C. would
benefit business and ease a social inequity, 1/7/06
NC
State Treasurer Richard H. Moore, Speech, North
Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry Annual
Economic Forecast Conference, 1/3/06
Press
Release: Labor
Commissioner Dan Gardner announces Oregon's minimum
wage to increase, 9/16/05. "Overall most
low-wage workers pump every dollar of their paychecks
directly into the local economy by spending their
money in their neighborhood stores..."
Las
Vegas Review-Journal, Some
small businesses back wage boost, 10/30/04
Press Release: Floridians
For All, Fifty Business Owners Speak Out In Support
Of Amendment 5, 10/26/04
Gwendolyn
Bounds, Wall Street Journal, Minimum-Wage
boost can help retain staff, 7/27/04
Interview
with CEO James Sinegal, Business Week,
At
Costco, "Good jobs and good wages," 5/31/04
Op-Eds
/ Letters:
FOR RECENT OP-EDS/LETTERS, Please Visit Business for a Fair Minimum Wage: http://www.businessforafairminimumwage.org/newsroom
Letter to the Editor : Lew Prince, Wage hike's benefits, USA Today, 2/9/07
Op-Ed: Holly Sklar, Minimum wage raise is good for business, McClatchy-Tribune News Service, 2/8/07
Op-Ed: Chuck Collins, Slapping the invisible hand, TomPaine.com, 1/29/07
Op-Ed: Holly Sklar: Minimum wage breaks no-raise record, Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service, 12/1/06
Rep.
Harold Ford Jr. and Pace Cooper, [Minimum
wage] Good for workers, good for business, too,
Memphis Commercial-Appeal, 11/24/06. Pace
Cooper is CEO of Memphis-based Cooper Companies,
which owns and operates 21 hotels in 9 states.
Letter
to the Editor: Doug Hammond, small business
owner, Higher
wages an effective strategy, 7/5/06. "Employees
are not simply wage earners: by spending their
income in the community, they are stakeholders
in the sustainability of all local businesses...
As the CEO of Relief Resources, I know that paying
our employees decent wages has proven to be one
of our most effective and strategic business decisions...
It has improved retention, strengthened recruitment...and
elevated the quality of services we can deliver."
Op-Ed:
Holly Sklar, Congress
values own paychecks more than workers, Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information Services, 6/20/06
Letter
to Editor: Malcolm Davis, Raleigh
News & Observer, Decent
Pay, 4/11/06. "If I can find a way to
be fair with my employees in rural Eastern North
Carolina, why can't our government?"
Op-Ed:
Holly Sklar, Wanted:
A High Road Economy, TomPaine.com, 3/17/06
Op-Ed:
Paul Lightfoot, Adequate
minimum wage helps businesses, workers, economy,
The Journal News (NY), 6/16/04
Op-Ed:
Bill Hilliker, Why
a minimum wage is good for small business,
Buffalo News, 6/7/04
Related
Reports:
Holly Sklar and Paul Sherry, A
Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business
and Our Future (PDF)
Fiscal Policy Institute, New York’s 2005-2007 minimum wage increases:
Good for the state’s workers, good for the economy, 1/22/07
Economic
Policy Institute, Minimum
Wage Trends: Understanding past and contemporary
research, 10/24/06
Institute
of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley, Do
Businesses Flee Citywide Minimum Wages: Evidence
From San Francisco and Santa Fe, 9/06
Center for American Progress and Policy Matters
Ohio, Good
For Business: Small Business Growth and State
Minimum Wages
Fiscal
Policy Institute, States
with Minimum Wages above the Federal Level have
had Faster Small Business and Retail Job Growth
Oregon
Center for Public Policy, New
Year's Day Minimum Wage Boost Helps Low-Wage Workers
Without Hurting Economy, 12/30/05
Responsible
Wealth, Choosing
the High Road: Businesses That Pay a Living Wage
and Prosper
Holly
Sklar, Laryssa Mykyta and Susan Wefald, Raise
the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All
of Us. See especially chapters 4 and
5.
EARN: Economic Analysis and Research Network reports on minimum wage
Links:
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