Sen. Warren vows to push for minimum wage hike

[unhappycamper]

http://www.tauntongazette.com/article/20140210/NEWS/140219484/1994/NEWS



U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., left, and U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., discuss raising the federal and state minimum wages at Bolocos Congress Street location in Boston on Monday.s Congress Street location in Boston on Monday.

Sen. Warren vows to push for minimum wage hike

BOSTON — Saying "full-time employment should not mean full-time poverty," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., joined by local fast-food restaurant Boloco co-founder and former CEO John Pepper and U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., promised she would push for raising the federal minimum wage and encouraged lawmakers in Massachusetts to raise the state's minimum wage.

The three discussed the issue at Boloco's Congress Street location, in the middle of the city's financial district. Members of the media squeezed into the restaurant's small dining area to hear the conversation, while Boloco employees could be seen in the background making burritos and wraps and tending to customers.

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. In Massachusetts, it's $8 an hour. At Boloco, $9 an hour is the "absolute salary floor" as Pepper phrased it. For supervisors in the company, that floor is $11 per hour.

~snip~

The discussion is ongoing. In Massachusetts, the state Senate approved a bill last November that would incrementally increase the state's minimum wage each year, until it reaches $11 per hour in 2016. That bill awaits a debate and vote in the House of Representatives.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for Elizabeth Warren. n/t

-Laelth