Notwithstanding the lesson from the impending Wal-Mart closings (and what might have caused them), state and local officials continue to look to mandate low-income workers into prosperity by increasing the minimum wage. Advocates in the state of Maine have succeeded in securing the required number of signatures to place a question on the November ballot…
Read More »State and local elections were replete with minimum wage ballot issues in a host of venues across the country this week. We can report on some good results, some not so good, and some activities to be highlighted in the future. On the positive side of the ledger, the voters in Portland Maine rejected a…
Read More »As election day draws closer in municipalities across the country, the issue of raising state and local minimum wages continues to percolate in a number of communities. In the Philadelphia Mayoral race to be decided next Tuesday, democratic candidate and former city councilor Jim Kenney endorsed increasing the city’s $12 minimum wage to a higher…
Read More »A ballot campaign is now underway after the Portland Maine City Council placed a ballot initiative, sponsored by the “Portland Green Independent Committee” on the ballot for the November election. “An Ordinance Toward a Living Wage”, which will appear on the Portland ballot will ask voters to establish a local minimum wage of $15/hour starting…
Read More »In what surprises absolutely no-one, New York state Labor Commissioner Mario Musolino approved the recommendation of the Fast Food Wage Board appointed earlier this year by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Not even trying to make it look on the level, Governor Cuomo in an appearance with Vice President Joe Biden, announced that Commissioner Musolino had signed…
Read More »Bringing the old adage to life, the city of Portland Maine is now wondering how to fix the minimum wage debacle they unleashed just one week earlier when the city council voted to enact an ill-advised and poorly written ordinance to create a minimum wage in excess of the state minimum. Portland passed an ordinance…
Read More »It seems to be the issue that gives us more and more fodder each week and this week is no exception to highlight minimum wage issues. First off, there is still a great deal of activity in Missouri over the question as municipalities scramble to try and beat the August 28 effective date of a…
Read More »What the Governors giveth, the locals taketh away – or so it seems. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for state lawmakers to increase the minimum wage in the city by 44 percent. In what was described as a “robustly liberal” speech, he advocated for increasing the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2019…
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