By Ted Hart and Denise Yost, Multimedia Content Manager
NBC4 Columbus, OH, March 28, 2013
COLUMBUS, Ohio - In 1973, the federal minimum wage was $1.60 per hour. The current minimum wage is at $7.25. If the minimum wage had been indexed to inflation, the rate would now be about $10.50.
But Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is campaigning to change that with the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013.
The legislation would: Raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from its current $7.25 in three steps of 95 cents and then provide for automatic annual increases linked to changes in the cost of living; and
Gradually raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, currently at $2.13 an hour, to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage. ...
"Working for the minimum wage barely covers the minimum. Between student loans, health insurance, car insurance, I'm happy to come out on top each month," said Heather Ross, manager of Dempsey's in downtown Columbus.
Employees at Dempsey's who don't get tips, start at $10 per hour. Mark Dempsey said it's something he does to compete.
"It does reduce turnover. You have less training costs, things like that, and you have a happy employee. They know they can't go anywhere else and make that kind of money right off the bat," Dempsey said.
Dempsey and Ross said they support Brown's efforts to raise the minimum wage.
"That's below the poverty level for anybody supporting themselves or supporting their families. That's $15,000 a year and that's not nearly enough to have any decent kind of standard of living," Brown said. ...
In Ohio, the state minimum wage is adjusted annually because of an amendment to the Ohio constitution that was approved in 2006. It's linked to the national consumer price index.
In January, wages increased by 15 cents to $7.85 an hour...