The Great $15 Debate     The $15 minimum wage – a rising tide or a hole beneath the water line?   There is a lively discussion going on regarding the push for a higher minimum wage. In Rhode Island, the Senate Labor Committee voted 7-4 to recommend passage of 2021-S.1, An Act Relating to Labor and Labor Relations – Minimum Wages. Because of the wide support for a higher minimum wage (two-thirds of Americans), the COVID-19 pandemic, and social unrest related to widening income disparity, this bill is being fast tracked and is on the Senate Calendarfor Feb. 10, 2021. It will then most likely...

Your businesses' messaging has to stand out if you don't don't want to blend in. The right message gets results. The wrong message, or the uninspired one will make you seem unremarkable and forgettable, just when you need to be remarkable and memorable.   Every day, we are subjected to a tsunami of promotion, marketing and advertising in social media and entertainment. Because of this, not only is it difficult to get noticed and stand out, but you also have to do it quicker and quicker. This makes the need for a great tagline more relevant today than ever before.   Although slogans and...

So what are the effects of increasing minimum wages? Any Econ 101 student can tell you the answer: The higher wage reduces the quantity of labor demanded, and hence leads to unemployment. - Paul Krugman   (Center of the American Experiment)     This is one reason why 72 percent of US-based economists oppose a federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour. In 2015, the Employment Policies Institute surveyed 166 economists in the United States on the subject. They found: Nearly three-quarters of these US-based economists oppose a federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour. The majority of surveyed economists believe a $15.00 per hour minimum wage will have negative...

President-elect Joe Biden's proposal to more than double the federal minimum wage would provide an urgently needed pay hike to millions of low-income workers and help stem inequality in the U.S., economists and labor advocates said.   CBS News, Jan. 16, 2021   In detailing his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal on Thursday, Mr. Biden called for raising the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, saying, "No one working 40 hours a week should still be below the poverty line."   A fatter paycheck could help many Americans regain their financial footing during the ongoing recovery, including "essential" workers such as grocery clerks and home health...

If we’ve learned anything from 2020, it’s that we are not only all in this together, but that to thrive, we have to work together and look out for each other. Sounds right. Now, add to the mix the fact that your business needs to make a profit. This is where it could get a little dicey. If we are looking out for and supporting one another, then what should that profit look like?   According to an article on pricing, published in Inc. and written by Elizabeth Masserman, when determining what to charge for a product or service, there are three...