July 31, 2013
By Neal Tepel
To create opportunity for American workers, we must ensure that they can earn enough to support a family and afford life’s very basics. It's been four years since our low-wage workers last saw a raise. It's time to increase the federal minimum wage
If you work full time in the wealthiest nation on earth, you shouldn’t live in poverty. You shouldn’t have to lay awake at night worried about how you’re going to pay the utility bill, or what you’ll do if the car breaks down, or whether you can put dinner on the table the next day.
President Obama has proposed raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 per hour. Since the last increase, its value has eroded 7.3 percent due to the rising cost of living, so the president also wants to index the minimum wage to inflation beginning in 2015. The president’s minimum wage increase is part of his vision of an economy where opportunity is available to everyone and where we all get a fair shake.
A higher minimum wage boosts consumer demand, the engine that powers our economy during a recovery like this. It is time to increase the minimum wage, it’s the right thing to do.
Neal Tepel is the publisher of LaborPress
