nearly 1 million workers will receive a pay boost in Jan. due to minimum wage increases

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/nearly-1-million-workers-will-receive-pay-boost-january-due-minimum-wage-increases-1356020843

Nearly one million workers will see their pay increase in January due to scheduled increases in the minimum wage, according to a release by the National Employment Law Project. These workers in in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington will have their hourly pay rise by between 10 and 35 cents per hour, “resulting in an extra $190 to $510 per year for the average directly-affected worker,” NELP found. This table shows the increases in each state:



If the federal minimum wage had kept up with inflation since the 1960s, it would be over $10 today, a far cry from the current $7.25. And as the Economic Policy Institute noted, “Based on current projections of inflation growth over the next ten years, the federal minimum wage will lose nearly 20 percent of its purchasing power by 2022, equaling $5.99 in today’s dollars.”

[hobbit709]

1. It's still way below the official poverty level.

[xchrom]

2. indeed. nt

[hobbit709]

3. When I first came to Austin in 1974

you could work 25 hrs/wk at minimum wage and pay your rent, buy groceries, and still have enough left over to go out and party a couple of times a week.
Now if you work 40 hrs/wk at minimum wage, you're sleeping under an overpass because that's not even enough to pay your rent.