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Obama Urges Congress to Increase the Minimum Wage
Against opposition in the legislatures, the president on Saturday lent his voice to the cause of increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour.
The Guardian reports:
Obama’s address came a day after new figures showed that the US added 175,000 jobs in February, a larger rise than had been expected, but also that the unemployment rate rose to 6.7%.
With the 2014 midterm elections in mind, Democrats and Republicans are targeting those who are not doing so well out of the general if slow national economic recovery.
Citing a number of large and small businesses he said had raised wage payments voluntarily and without “waiting for Congress to make up its mind” – including two giants, Gap and Costco – Obama said: “I agree with these business owners, which is why I issued an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour.
Read more here.
—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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Source: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/obama_urges_congress_to_increase_the_minimum_wage_20140308/
