Starting today, BET is reporting that nearly a million minimum wage earners in 10 states will receive a cost-of-living adjustment in their paychecks to account for inflation.
Washington State, after a raise of 15 cents, will have the highest minimum wage in the nation at $9.19 per hour. Other states raising their minimum wage are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont. The last raise to the federal minimum wage came in 2009 after being signed into law by President George W. Bush.
Business associations such as the Chamber of Commerce tend to oppose federal as well as state hikes to the minimum wage, arguing that they’re unfair to business owners and force them to cut back on hours for workers. Lobbying groups for the National Restaurant Association have successfully kept the minimum wage for servers and other tipped employees at $2.13 per hour, a rate that hasn’t increased in nearly 20 years.
Read more at BET.
