Branstad to explore statewide minimum wage hike, By William Petroski, October 24, 2016, Des Moines Register: “Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday he will explore a statewide increase in the minimum wage, replacing minimum wage hikes being approved on a county-by-county basis throughout Iowa. The Republican governor didn’t offer a specific figure for a uniform increase in Iowa’s minimum wage, but he suggested he would consult with experts for help in determining an appropriate figure. The state and federal minimum wage has been set at $7.25 an hour since 2008, and there is no indication Congress will act soon to raise it…”
Tag: Iowa
Minimum Wage – Des Moines, IA
Des Moines’ minimum wage is higher than you think, By Kevin Hardy, June 14, 2016, Des Moines Register: “S. Ahmed Merchant isn’t too worried about Polk County possibly raising the minimum wage above Iowa’s mandated $7.25 an hour. By December, he plans to pay every employee at his 40 Iowa Jimmy John’s sandwich shops at least $10.50 per hour. Merchant started raising workers’ beginning pay after Johnson County supervisors decided last year to phase in a new minimum wage of $10.10 per hour…”
Racial Achievement Gap – Iowa, Kentucky
- Preschool — The solution to black achievement gap?, By Mackenzie Ryan, May 23, 2016, Des Moines Register: “It’s mid-morning, and Evevett Fugate has been up all night. After clocking out of her overnight McDonald’s shift at 6 a.m. and returning home, she readies her four children for school, making sure the oldest three catch the bus in the morning. She takes her youngest, Ovalia, to preschool class for 4-year-olds, then picks her up at 11 a.m. Although Fugate’s overnight work allows her to attend school activities, she has enrolled Ovalia in early childhood programs since age 2 because she knows how vital is it for children to get an early jump on kindergarten, whether it be learning letters or picking up social skills…”
- Despite advances, racial achievement gap widens, By Luba Ostashevsky, May 23, 2016, Louisville Courier-Journal: “The second-graders in Sarah Bowling’s class at Dunn Elementary were on a mathematical scavenger hunt. Students cradling clipboards moved around the room matching groupings of things and learning the concept that three groups of five things total the same as five groups of three things. In the middle of the room, three students received individualized instruction because they had fallen short of academic expectations. While Dunn has students of all skill levels, there remains a gap in student achievement, particularly between the school’s African-American students and the rest of the students. Such gaps were a major consideration for state educational leaders more than five years ago, when Kentucky became the first state to adopt the Common Core…”