As Obama backs wage hike, a look at state efforts
President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address Tuesday that he will sign an executive order setting the minimum wage for workers covered by new federal contracts at $10.10 an hour, a big jump from the current federal minimum of $7.25. Obama hopes his order will spur Congress to increase the minimum wage for all employees.
In similar efforts, Democrats in more than half of U.S. states are sponsoring or are expected to introduce state-level wage hike measures, according to a national review by The Associated Press. Even in Republican-dominated capitals where the bills are longshots, the proposals still give Democrats a chance to hammer home the popular theme of fair wages in what is an election year in most places
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—In Washington state, a bill would increase what is already the highest state minimum wage in the nation to $12 an hour over the next three years.
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—Bills in other states would push the minimum wage over the $10 mark, including measures in Florida, Iowa and Kentucky to create a $10.10 hourly minimum. One bill in South Carolina would require employers to pay at least $10 an hour or whatever federal law requires, whichever is greater. In New York, the Democrat-controlled Assembly wants to accelerate the state’s scheduled minimum wage increase to $9 by 2015 and tie it to the inflation rate.
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—With bills in the Vermont statehouse that would raise the minimum wage as high as $12.50 by 2015, one lawmaker said this week he would like to see the minimum wage to reach $15 an hour. Rep. Chris Pearson, a member of the state’s Progressive Party, was part of a group of Vermont lawmakers calling for a new “bill of economic rights.”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/as-obama-backs-wage-hike-a-look-at-state-efforts/2014/01/29/1f8e1dc6-890f-11e3-a760-a86415d0944d_story.html