Most Agree Economy is Out of Whack
Nearly two-thirds of America's workers—including 48% of Republicans—say the nation’s economic policies favor the wealthy over the less well-off, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll.
The poll also finds that 57% of people want the government to pursue policies to combat the record levels of economic inequality in America that the Post says “has reached dimensions not seen since the years preceding the Great Depression.” This month, President Obama said that “making sure the economy works for every working American” is the “defining challenge of our time.”
One of those policies would be to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Overall, 66% support boosting minimum age, including Republicans (50% to 45%).
The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour over the next three years. The bill also would index the minimum wage to protect it against inflation. Tipped workers, who currently make only $2.13 an hour, would see their hourly wages raised to 70% of the new minimum wage. But Republican filibuster threats have blocked the bill from coming to a vote.
While the federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009, workers and their allies have focused on local and state action. Just recently lawmakers in the District of Columbia and Prince George's and Montgomery counties in Maryland voted to increase the minimum age in their jurisdictions to $11.50 an hour by 2017 and index it to inflation. In November, voters in SeaTac, a small town outside of Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour (the measure is being challenged in court). Now workers are mobilizing a campaignto convince the Seattle City Council to follow suit.
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This has been reposted from the AFL-CIO.
