Huffington Post – by Dave Jamieson
WASHINGTON — Minimum wage workers in a handful of states will be ringing in the new year with an automatic pay raise.
As Congress considers legislation that would boost the federal minimum wage, at least 13 states will be raising the wage floor on their own next week. They’re led once again by Washington state, which will continue to have the highest state minimum wage in the nation, at $9.32 per hour.
A few cities and counties around the country will be raising their minimum wages as well, including San Francisco, which will set its at $10.74. San Francisco’s base will no longer be the highest municipal minimum wage in the country, however, after voters in SeaTac, Wash., approved a ballot measure setting a $15 wage floor for an estimated 6,000 airport workers. The SeaTac minimum wage is set to go into effect Jan. 1, although it’s currently being challenged in court.
Most of next week’s increases will come courtesy of an inflation index. Ten states have tied their minimum wages to the index, guaranteeing that they rise with the cost of living each year. Other states, such as New Jersey and Connecticut, passed legislation in 2013 that will nominally raise their minimum wages. (California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $10 by 2016, but the first increase, to $9, won’t come until July.)
The federal minimum wage prevails in the 31 states that don’t currently mandate a higher one. The federal rate hasn’t been raised since 2009, after the last of a series of increases signed into law by President George W. Bush took effect.
The federal minimum wage is not tied to an index, but Democrats in Congress, as well as President Barack Obama, have said that it should be. The minimum wage bill put forth by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) wouldraise the minimum wage to $10.10 and peg it to inflation. Obama, who previously suggested raising the wage floor to $9 and indexing it, has since gotten on board with the $10.10 proposal from Harkin and Miller.
The annual minimum wage raises in states and cities are routinely praised by low-wage worker advocates and panned by business-friendly groups. The Employment Policies Institute, a vocal critic of higher minimum wages, argued in a press release Monday that raises like the ones that will go into effect next week have “disastrous results for the most vulnerable jobseekers.” Republicans on Capitol Hill have shown party-line opposition to the Harkin-Miller proposal, with leadership declaring a minimum wage increase a job-killer.
Most voters, however, don’t seem persuaded by the critics’ economic arguments, as they continue to approve higher minimum wages on the local level. The idea of raising the minimum wage tends to poll extremely well, including among Republicans who are not members of Congress. Most polls show that around two-thirds of respondents support raising the federal minimum wage. In a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, half of Republicans who responded said it should be raised.
Here are the state and local increases that will go into effect next week, as compiled by the Employment Policies Institute:
- Arizona: $7.80 to $7.90
- Colorado: $7.78 to $8.00
- Connecticut: $8.25 to $8.70
- Florida: $7.79 to $7.93
- Missouri: $7.35 to $7.50
- Montana: $7.80 to $7.90
- New Jersey: $7.25 to $8.25
- New York: $7.25 to $8.00
- Ohio: $7.85 to $7.95
- Oregon: $8.95 to $9.10
- Rhode Island: $7.75 to $8.00
- Vermont: $8.60 to $8.73
- Washington State: $9.19 to $9.32
- Albuquerque, N.M.: $8.50 to $8.60
- Bernalillo County, N.M.: $8.00 to $8.50
- San Francisco, Calif.: $10.55 to $10.74
- San Jose, Calif.: $10.00 to $10.15
- SeaTac, Wash.: $9.19 to $15.00
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/raise-minimum-wage_n_4493673.html
Omg, that is so pathetic. The minimum wage must be at least $10/hr if anyone in this country is to survive on a 40hr/wk schedule. Plain and simple. Those rates are bullshit and nothing short of slave labor. F**k them!
You have to believe they want us to survive. The AGENDA is NOT.
I always thought that the minimum wage was supposed to be a training wage, but most employers that will start out at min. wage usually keep ya at min. wage or the raises are so small they are not hardly even worth it…. Yes this will be a job killer and will raise the prices in the stores I bet.
The minimum wage increase will probably throw people into a higher tax bracket in which case they are no better off.
. . .
Gotta push people into that higher tax bracket for Obamacare so they can rob what’s left of our paycheck.
Isn’t that the truth.
. . .
It has always rather roasted my chestnuts that those who employ others feel solely entitled to the wealth generated by the sweat of others. There is no equity in employment. Just the chance you will be allowed to slave again tomorrow, and give it all to keep basic items like shelter if you can afford it.
As I have often thought of opening an IT business, the big question was how I could make sure it would be worth it for talented folks to work for me. I feel I would be getting a valuable resource to use in my efforts and I would want those folks to stay with me.
So threatening their jobs or treating them in an undignified manner would never happen, I just am not wired that way.
But it seems that almost all employers have been to training at a terrorist camp or something. It is so bad that I am not using my training in I at all and just looking for a job I can stand to do that pays at least enough for the bills and food. I took high honors in networking and system maintenance and repair but it was a waste of time it seems.
So at 55 I feel what you all are saying but the plan seems to be to keep people in debt and afraid of losing their home or car or everything they own. It is sad that greed has killed our country but it is a fact.
On an even sadder note, the black friday shoppers almost rioting to save a few dollars, people fighting over air jordan shoes and fights at a salvation center where they were passing out stuff to people who need it, this makes me want to just walk away and never come back.
Lets make the best of today and be glad if we are here tomorrow.
“But it seems that almost all employers have been to training at a terrorist camp or something. It is so bad that I am not using my training in I at all and just looking for a job I can stand to do that pays at least enough for the bills and food.”
Exactly! Welcome to my world. I’m so sick of these employers treating you like shit. It’s like being back in China. Pure Communism and Fascism all rolled into one. I had 4 job interviews last week and all of them didn’t even have the decency to treat me with respect but merely gave me hawk-eyed stares, practically yelled at me and made it seem that all my years and previous call center work experience in customer service didn’t mean shit. And one of those was for a sales/customer service call center job for a MOVING COMPANY, for cryin’ out loud!
WTF?!!