New Jersey is one example, but the ongoing drumbeat to continually hike the minimum wage at state and local levels continues. The city council in St. Paul Minnesota released an initial draft of a $15/hr minimum wage ordinance they plan to consider before year-end. The proposal mandates that large businesses with 100 workers or more begin gradually increasing wages in 2020 arriving at $15/hr by 2023. Franchises with ten or more locations nationwide are considered large businesses under the proposed law. Businesses with fewer than 100 employees would have six years to comply (2025), while so-called “micro-businesses” with five or fewer workers would have ten years to comply. It also eliminates a tipped worker exemption, but provides for a 90-day exemption for individuals undergoing training and those between 14-17 years of age. Out west, the Alameda city council in California voted to raise the local minimum wage to $13.50/hr effective July 2019 and to $15/hr by July 2020 over the objections of both the mayor and the small business community. California is already scheduled to mandate its statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022. Apparently, that’s not soon enough for politicians in Alameda