By Ted Griggs and Timothy Boone
Baton Rouge Advocate, February 3, 2014
Lifting federal contract workers’ minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, as President Barack Obama proposes, isn’t expected to affect contractors very much, but extending that pay to workers across the board would be big, especially in Louisiana where a high percentage of workers make minimum wage or less. Hundreds of thousands of Louisiana residents will benefit and that could boost the state’s tax revenue, said Jan Moller, director of Louisiana Budget Project. ...
Sarah Covert, who owns Sarah the Pet Sitter in New Orleans, said she’s already paying her five employees $10 an hour. Covert, who started the business in November 2010 ... said she wants to pay her workers as much as she can.
Paying workers well above the current minimum wage has paid off, Covert said. “I get better employees and they provide better service,” she said. That’s important in a business that involves going into people’s homes and looking after their pets. By providing the extra quality of service, that allows Covert to charge customers a little more.
tgriggs@theadvocate.com tboone@theadvocate.com
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