Senator Elizabeth Warren asks why minimum wage isn’t $22 an hour VIDEO
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions last week, asked why the current federal minimum wage rate is only $7.25 and not $22 an hour.
“If we started in 1960, and we said that, as productivity goes up — that is, as workers are producing more — then the minimum wage is going to go up the same,” the Massachusetts senator said during the hearing.
“And, if that were the case, the minimum wage today would be about $22 an hour. So, my question … is what happened to the other $14.75?”
This directed at University of Massachusetts professor of economics Arindrajit Dube
From The BLAZE
photo 401(K) 2012 via Flickr
Lastly, if increasing minimum wage is a cure-all for unemployment and “income inequality,” consider this list of the top 10 states with the highest unemployment rates in the U.S. (the states with minimum wages higher than the federal standard are in boldface):
10. GEORGIA (Unemployment Rate/Minimum Wage Rate: 8.7/$7.25)
9. SOUTH CAROLINA (8.7/$7.25)
8. MICHIGAN (8.9/$7.40)
7. ILLINOIS (9.0/$8.25)
6. MISSISSIPPI (9.3/$7.25)
5. NEW JERSEY (9.5/$7.25)
4. NORTH CAROLINA (9.5/$7.25)
3. NEVADA (9.7/$8.25)
2. CALIFORNIA (9.8/$8.00)
1. RHODE ISLAND (9.8/$7.75)
