Raising minimum wage: A help or harm?, July 8, 2012, National Public Radio: “Back in 1912, Massachusetts became the first place in America to introduce a minimum wage, but it would take another quarter century before a national minimum wage was set. President Franklin Roosevelt made it law in 1938, that any hourly worker had to be paid at least 25 cents an hour. It was revolutionary, and very few countries had anything like it. Every few years, the federal minimum wage would go up, helping millions of Americans inch closer to a middle-class lifestyle. Something changed in the early 1970s, however, and since then, the minimum wage has fallen by around 25 percent. Fast-forward to today. The minimum wage is currently $7.25. But in 1968, you’d make the equivalent of $10 an hour in today’s money…”
Day: July 11, 2012
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- House Democrats fall short in efforts to block food stamp cuts as lawmakers write farm bill, Associated Press, July 11, 2012, Washington Post: “Democrats fell short in efforts Wednesday to block cuts to the food stamp program as the House Agriculture Committee moved ahead on a half-trillion-dollar bill to fund farm and nutrition programs over the next five years. The program that helps feed 46 million people at a cost of near $80 billion a year was the dominant issue as committee members tried to advance one of the larger and more expensive bills that Congress is taking up this year. Democrats insisted that any cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would result in people going hungry. Republicans said they were merely trying to bring efficiency to a program to ensure that anyone who is qualified for food benefits will receive them…”
- Number of Georgians on food stamps balloons, By Daniel Malloy and Katie Leslie, July 7, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Nearly one in five Georgians now gets federal assistance to put dinner on the table. As Congress debates the future of the food stamp program, with Republicans looking to cut it back, the number of recipients in Georgia has ballooned to 1.9 million as of April, or nearly 20 percent of the population. The state’s 0.4 percent increase from March was the seventh largest growth rate in the country, making Georgia one of 13 states where the number of beneficiaries rose, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center…”