Well, at least some people in the Democratic Party is on the ball with the minimum wage issue:
The U.S. Senate’s Democrats, under prodding from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., are moving toward supporting a $12-an-hour national minimum wage, higher than the $10.10 plan put forward by President Obama.
An increase in the federal $7.25 an hour minimum wage — a level set by the bipartisan Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 — has been blocked from a vote by Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The $10.10-an-hour proposal is one we advanced two years ago this summer,” Murray said in an interview. “We were looking at where we should be, had that passed, and where we should be going with wages in this country.
“I know from my own experience, when you pay a livable wage people have increased buying power and can take care of their families’ needs. Businesses get more income and succeed. It is good for everyone.”
The proposals for a higher minimum wage may be stalled in Congress, but a tighter labor market has caused major retailers to increase wages for their lowest paid employees.
Wal-Mart announced last month that it will hike minimum pay to $9 an hour starting in April, and to $10 an hour a year from now, a move expected to boost paychecks for 500,000 of its 1.3 million “associates.”
That's a helluva lot better than the $10.10 proposed by Obama and other Republicrats. At least the $12.00 per hour would put most people above the poverty line.
Further down the article, it shows why Scott Walker and his Teapublican allies are really out of the loop on this issue:
In 2014, voters in four Republican-controlled states — Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota — all voted to raise state minimum wages.
The highest-ever purchasing value of the federal minimum wage was 47 years ago. At $1.60 an hour the 1968 minimum wage was equivalent to $10.88 in 2014 dollars. Purchasing power has been in decline over the past three decades.
The gentle reader will remember that Walker said that he didn't think that the minimum wage serves a purpose.
