Local
businesses back minimum wage increase
By Andrew J. Manuse
MetroWest
Daily News (MA), 7/26/06
Copyright (c) MetroWest Daily News
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.
More than 30 CEOs, agency presidents and business
owners signed the statement, which was prompted
by local members of three national business organizations,
including Responsible Wealth of Boston, Social
Venture Network of San Francisco and the Business
Alliance for Local Living Economies of San Francisco,
according to Doug Hammond, chief executive of
Relief Resources, a temporary staffing agency
in Hatfield, who got the whole thing going.
"There
was that characterization that business opposed
and labor supported a minimum-wage increase,"
said Hammond. "Those of us in the Social
Venture Network saw employees as crucial to our
bottom line. For our businesses to be successful,
we need our employees to be successful."
Hammond said the business groups facilitated the
organizing process for the statement after he
wrote a letter to the editor in another publication.
The statement from business leaders, essentially
said, "an increase in the minimum wage will
provide a boost to local economies." It continued,
"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."
The statement rejected comments from other business
groups that "a higher minimum wage will impede
economic growth and harm small businesses."
Eric Hudson, president and founder of Recycline
Inc., a Waltham business that makes Preserve personal
care products with recycled materials, said he
employs some "fairly inexperienced"
workers out of college, and pays them above $8
an hour now because the cost of living in Massachusetts
is too high to pay them minimum wage.
"I'm
someone who is generally suspect of government
regulation on pricing in the marketplace, but
as someone who has run a business now for 10 years
in Massachusetts, I think people need more than
$8 an hour to live here," Hudson said.
Hudson, who signed the statement, was joined by
Laury Hammel, owner and president of The Longfellow
Sports Clubs in Wayland; Arnold Hiatt, former
chairman and chief executive of Stride Rite Corp.
in Weston; Carol Atwood, president of Spartacus
Media Enterprises in Sudbury; Alan Solomont, chairman
of Solomont Bailis Ventures in Weston; and Florence
Sender, chief executive of FoodLogic LLC in Newton;
among others.
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=136369
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