U.S. President Barack Obama supports the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour from $7.25, according to a White House official.
“The president has long supported raising the minimum wage so hard-working Americans can have a decent wage for a day’s work to support their families and make ends meet,” according to a source quoted by the New York Times.
Tom Harkin of Iowa and George Miller of California, both members of the Democratic Party sponsored the legislation in Senate and in the House calling for a fair minimum wage $10.10 per hour. The project includes raising the minimum wage in three 95-cent stages, over two years. Subsequently, the minimum wage would be indexed with the inflation rate, according to the proposal of the two politicians. Obama Supports Harkin-Miller law, said the official quoted by the New York Times.
“The combination of an increase to $10.10 and some breaks for small business on expensing unite virtually the whole Democratic caucus, and we are prepared to move forward shortly,” said Senator Charles Schumer, one of the most influential democratic congressmen.
The bill provides that small businesses can deduct the total investment cost in equipment or business expansion in the amount of up to $500,000 in the first year. Strategists of the Democratic Party argued that the minimum wage will help millions of employees in a period of increased income inequality.
Some Democrats admitted, according to New York Times, that promoting a bill that increases the minimum wage is a method to challenge the Republican Party who will be caught in the middle of the interests of lobbyists, conservative voters and the high percentage of the population that supports this proposal.
According to a survey conducted in the summer by the Hart Research, 80 percent of Americans support the rising of the minimum wage to $10.
In his State of the Union in February, Barack Obama has talked about raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour. Washington did not act in this direction, and some states have unilaterally raised the minimum wage above the threshold set by federal law.
In September, authorities in California have passed a law that increases the minimum wage in stages to $10 per hour by 2016. Washington State requires a minimum wage of $9.19 per hour indexed with the inflation.
Some cities have also set their own minimum wage levels. In San Francisco, the minimum wage is $10.55 per hour. New Jersey approved on Tuesday a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $8.25 per hour on January 1 and indexing to inflation thereafter compared to the federal threshold of $7.25.
The most recent increase of the minimum wage at the federal level took place in 2009 under a law passed in 2007 which provided for raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour.
Reply