A Surprising Number of America’s Mayors Support $15 Minimum Wage

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A Surprising Number of America’s Mayors Support $15 Minimum Wage

By Ben Wofford and Manuela Tobias at Politico



Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/mayors-survey-minimum-wage-213563#ixzz3yJpzWNER


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Nearly two-thirds of mayors surveyed anonymously by Politico say that raising the minimum wage is something they would endorse. A third of them say they would heed the rallying cry of unions and progressives to push the wage as high as $15. They just don't say it out loud.

This snapshot of thinking inside the executive offices of America's cities comes from POLITICO Magazine's fourth national Mayors Survey, part of the award-winning What Works series. The survey of 73 mayors, the largest response yet, clearly showed that even while city CEOs are still predominantly optimistic about the state of their local economies, doubts are creeping in.

Though not scientific—nearly three-quarters of the respondents were Democrat and 16 percent Republican - the answers of the survey revealed 71 percent of them felt their cities were better off now than six months ago. But that rosy outlook has dimmed somewhat since the last quarterly survey when more than three-quarters of the mayors felt their economic pictures improving. Asked to weigh in on news of jittery markets and global aftershocks, nearly half of mayors (48 percent) said they were worried about potential ramifications in their urban economies. (A third described themselves as largely unworried.)

A plurality of city CEOs, 37 percent, said they were in favor of raising their city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. But interestingly, many of those same mayors have been silent on the issue in public—and some have even opposed it. An additional 28 percent saying they favored an increase less than $15. That brings the total number of mayors in favor of a general increase to 65 percent. Still, the mayors could fairly be described as divided: coming in at a close second behind those in favor of a $15 increase were those staunchly opposed to any increase at all, at 29 percent. Four mayors said they had already adopted the $15 wage.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/mayors-survey-minimum-wage-213563#ixzz3yJqEIAN4



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[SoLeftIAmRight]

1. I wish Hillary did too

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