- Maryland’s minimum wage increase would affect workers, business owners, By Jean Marbella, January 11, 2014, Baltimore Sun: “At one end of the minimum wage battle, you’ll find Marissa Greene in Randallstown, for whom an increase would mean not having to eat nearly every meal at the fast-food place where she works, because groceries are a luxury. And at the other end, you’ll find Bob Garner, co-owner of a regional chain of full-service restaurants, who says an increase could cost him as much as $187,000 a year at just one of his 20 locations. Whether Maryland should raise its minimum wage above the current federal floor of $7.25 an hour is an issue that promises to dominate the legislative session that began last week in Annapolis — and have major implications for employers and employees alike…”
- Minimum wage loses ground since its banner year in 1968, By Scott Horsley, January 10, 2014, National Public Radio: “This week, we’ve been looking back at the legacy of the ‘War on Poverty,’ launched by Lyndon Johnson 50 years ago. The arsenal included government programs such as Head Start, food stamps and a push to increase the nation’s minimum wage. ‘We must extend the coverage of our minimum wage laws to more than 2 million workers now lacking this basic protection of purchasing power,’ Johnson said. Low-wage workers actually saw their purchasing power peak while Johnson was in office. Adjusting for inflation, minimum wage workers earn less today than they did in the late 1960s…”
- Minimum wage battles are shifting to the states, By Kimberly Railey, January 13, 2014, Boston Globe: “President Obama pledged in his 2013 State of the Union message to pursue a minimum wage increase nationwide, an issue all but forgotten since his first White House run. Declaring that ‘no one who works full time should have to live in poverty,’ Obama called for boosting the hourly minimum to $9. Nearly a year later, that goal remains unfulfilled, derailed by a slowly recovering economy and opposition from Republicans in Congress. So with the federal rate stuck at $7.25 and few prospects for change, the real focal point for wage battles in 2014 is moving to individual states…”
Tag: Employees
Federal and State Minimum Wages
- Raise minimum wage? One answer to income disparity, advocates say, By Brad Knickerbocker, November 9, 2013, Christian Science Monitor: “Washington is girding for another debate over raising the federal minimum wage, which has stood at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Many Democrats in Congress – led by Rep. George Miller of California in the House and Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa in the Senate – want to raise that $7.25 amount (actually, $4.87 in 1996 dollars) to $10.10 an hour…”
- States moving beyond U.S. minimum wage as Congress stalls, By William Selway and Jim Efstathiou Jr., November 11, 2013, Bloomberg: “President Barack Obama is pushing to raise the U.S. minimum wage higher than $7.25 an hour — the rate it’s been for four years. Half of the U.S. population won’t have to wait: They live in places where the bottom rate is already higher than that. Twenty-one states and Washington, D.C., have raised the lowest legal hourly wage above the rate set by Congress, with New Jersey voters joining the list last week and campaigns under way to do the same in at least five other states…”
- $10 minimum wage proposal has growing support from White House, By Catherine Rampell and Steven Greenhouse, November 7, 2013, New York Times: “The White House has thrown its weight behind a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to at least $10 an hour. ‘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,’ a White House official said. President Obama, the official continued, supports the Harkin-Miller bill, also known as the Fair Minimum Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, from its current $7.25…”
- Gallup Poll says 3 out of 4 Americans favor raising the minimum wage, By Olivera Perkins, November 12, 2013, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “More than three-quarters of Americans support raising the federal minimum hourly wage to $9 an hour, according to a Gallup Poll. While 76 percent support the wage hike, a slightly smaller percentage favor a raise that would include automatic increases, says the poll released Monday. Sixty-nine percent are in favor of a $9 minimum wage that would increase with inflation. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. (Ohio’s minimum is $7.85.)…”
- State to raise minimum wage in 2014, By Jonathan Shorman, November 12, 2013, News-Leader: “For the second consecutive year, Missouri’s minimum wage will increase in 2014, rising to $7.50 an hour from $7.35. The increase is automatically triggered by a cost-of-living formula. The increase, supported by groups such as Missouri Jobs with Justice, is opposed by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce. Since 2006, Missouri’s minimum wage has been tied to a cost-of-living formula, after voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring an annual adjustment. Though the wage can fall under the formula, it has never done so. Between 2009 and 2012, the wage held steady at $7.25 an hour…”
Payroll Card Programs
Paid via card, workers feel sting of fees, By Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Stephanie Clifford, June 30, 2013, New York Times: “A growing number of American workers are confronting a frustrating predicament on payday: to get their wages, they must first pay a fee. For these largely hourly workers, paper paychecks and even direct deposit have been replaced by prepaid cards issued by their employers. Employees can use these cards, which work like debit cards, at an A.T.M. to withdraw their pay. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, using the card involves a fee. And those fees can quickly add up: one provider, for example, charges $1.75 to make a withdrawal from most A.T.M.’s, $2.95 for a paper statement and $6 to replace a card. Some users even have to pay $7 inactivity fees for not using their cards. These fees can take such a big bite out of paychecks that some employees end up making less than the minimum wage once the charges are taken into account, according to interviews with consumer lawyers, employees, and state and federal regulators…”