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Minimum Wage in 31 States and DC Now Higher than Federal
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Kentucky is the second state in a week, the third state this year and the 13th state since 2006 to raise its minimum wage level higher than the federal minimum wage—stagnant at $5.15 an hour since 1997.
Overall, 31 states—including New Mexico, where Gov. Bill Richardson (D) is poised to sign a wage hike—and the District of Columbia have minimum wage rates higher than the feds.
Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R-Ky.) signed legislation yesterday that will give the Bluegrass State’s lowest-paid workers a raise to $5.85 in July, rising to $6.65 the following July and $7.25 an hour in July 2009. William Londrigan, president of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO, which joined with community and religious groups to win legislative approval of the pay hike, says:
It’s something that’s long overdue, but something the low wage worker will benefit from.
As in most state battles to raise minimum wage levels, the state Chamber of Commerce and Restaurant Association fought against giving some 200,000 workers a pay increase. At least, they didn’t go to court to try and stop the pay raise—unlike in Montana (click here to read about that battle).
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the Republican Senate minority continues to roadblock federal legislation to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 unless an $8.3 billion toll in the form of business tax breaks is paid.
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3 Comments
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Thank you for your ongoing coverage of minimum wage legislation at the state and federal levels. Your blog is an excellent resource.
[...] Update: Gov Fletcher is on a roll. He also signed a minimum wage increase this week, making Kentucky the 31st state that will have better wages than the federal minimum, with increases set for the next 3 years. Meanwhile we’re still waiting on the Dems in Congress to get past their one house bills and achieve real change. [...]
What’s with those Republicans in the Senate? Why on earth does business need to be appeased with tax breaks in order to give them justification for raising the federal minimum wage?
Congress’ salary increases between 1997 and 2006 have been about $31K. During this time, not only had there not been any increase in the federal minimum wage, but the tax breaks and abatements that have been enjoyed by big business in this country, as well as all the outsourcing of the jobs–well, it seems that the corporations have had more than their share of welfare from the taxpayers already! To write more tax breaks into legislation raising the federal minimum wage is the poison pill that threatens to minimize the positive impact of such an increase for working people in this country.
Maybe we can have those tax breaks for the corporations, if all the taxbreaks for the top .031% of the taxpayers are repealed altogether, and if the Bankruptcy Bill is repealed too.
These corporations shouldn’t have tax breaks right now, anyway–hasn’t anyone mentioned to them that the rest of us are paying for a war?