Since President Barack Obama proposed a hike to the federal minimum wage to help the nation's hourly earners keep up with the rising cost-of-living, there have been arguments that increasing the base pay for time and attendance can jeopardize businesses' livelihoods.

However, recent evidence seems to suggest the opposite, according to the Huffington Post. Costco recently reported its profits increased during the last quarter when compared to the figures that were reported for the same timeframe last year, $537 million and $394 million respectively. This news came shortly after Costco CEO Craig Jelinek voiced his support for a bump to minimum wage that would give employees $10.10 per hour.

"At Costco, we know that paying employees good wages makes good sense for business," Jelinek said in a statement last week, as quoted by the source. "Instead of minimizing wages, we know it's a lot more profitable in the long term to minimize employee turnover and maximize employee productivity, commitment and loyalty. We support efforts to increase the federal minimum wage."

Rather than making the leap all at once, it has been proposed that the pay hike takes places over series of smaller raises. Employers will need to stay on top of these developments to ensure their payroll processing systems are programmed with the correct information and expiration dates.

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