New Plymouth’s Internet Truckstop Group has set a $15 minimum wage for its 250 employees.

Internet Truckstop Group, the parent company of Truckstop.com and other companies, is raising its lowest wage to $15 per hour.

The move comes as pressure grows for a higher minimum wage. Los Angeles and Seattle are raising their minimums to $15 over the next few years. Idaho has the federal minimum, $7.25 an hour. President Barack Obama has proposed raising that to $10.10.

Nine of 10 Treasure Valley business leaders surveyed this spring by the Idaho Statesman favored raising the minimum, though most backed only a slight increase.

About 110 of Internet Truckstop’s 250 full-and-part-time employees will earn more as a result of the increase, said Scott Moscrip, founder and CEO. Most of those are office and clerical workers, who averaged $11 or $12 previously, he said.

Moscrip said a pay adjustment was due for the company, which has seen revenues grow between 10 percent and 30 percent in each of its 19 years in operation.

“We want our employees to be happy,” Moscrip said Wednesday. “We don’t want them to have to worry about making ends meet. We want to reward the folks who made us as successful as we are.”

Internet Truckstop Group owns Truckstop.com, uDrove, Real Time Freight and ITS Financial Services. The companies provide logistic solutions for various links in the trucking supply chain.

The companies have roughly doubled their combined employee roster in the last five years, Moscrip said. In addition to Internet Truckstop’s New Plymouth headquarters, the companies have offices in Fruitland, Meridian, Phoenix and Chicago. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of employees are Idaho-based, Moscrip said.

Moscrip also said employees earning $15 an hour will see their pay increase to $20 an hour after two years with the company. That move is designed to retain workers, he said.

“We expect it will give us a bigger pool of people to pull from for new hires,” he said.

This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 2:52 PM with the headline "New Plymouth’s Internet Truckstop Group has set a $15 minimum wage for its 250 employees.."