Andy Szal
Manufacturing.net, May 1, 2015
... Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia on Thursday introduced the Raise the Wage Act, which would bump the wage from the current $7.25 per hour to $12 per hour by 2020. ...
"If Senator Murray wants to know why a $12 minimum wage is bad policy, she should look in her own backyard," wrote Michael Saltsman of the Employment Policies Institute, a D.C.-based nonprofit with ties to the restaurant industry.
A group called Business for a Fair Minimum Wage countered that enacting the Murray-Scott bill would "be good for business, customers and our economy.”
"Today’s outdated minimum wage has far less buying power than it had in the 1960s, dragging down the consumer demand that drives Main Street businesses," said CEO Holly Sklar.
The ongoing political fight over wage levels coincides with a number of high-profile retailers that decided to raise pay rates for low-wage workers — a sign, analysts said, of a tightening U.S. labor market.
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