Raising the minimum wage: How firms are balancing the political, financial, and labor pressures

Guests: Brian Dreibelbis, senior director of supply chain human resources and labor and employee relations at Land O’Lakes and Matt Gustafson, associate professor of finance and Stuart and Michele Rothstein Early Career Professor, at the Penn State Smeal College of Business.

Despite the outcry from Americans across the political spectrum, the Federal minimum wage has not changed in 12 years. Many companies say they simply can’t afford to pay their employees more, while others assert that the status quo is too low a wage for anyone to live on.

Momentum has been building for more companies and states to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, or higher, which is more than twice as much as the current federal rate of $7.25.

We’ll examine the debate and how firms are balancing the political, financial and labor pressures of raising the minimum wage.