By W. Scott Bailey
San Antonio Business Journal, July 24, 2013
Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a national network of owners and executives, is calling on federal officials to raise the nation’s minimum wage to help strengthen the economy.
Backers of that plan say the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is lower than it was in 1956 at $8.58, when adjusted for inflation. As a result, current minimum-wage workers have less buying power than their counterparts did decades ago.
“We cannot build a strong economy with wages worth less than they were half a century ago,” says Business for a Fair Minimum Wage Director Holly Sklar. ...
The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, introduced in March by U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., would gradually raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 over a three-year span.
“The minimum wage would be over $10 already if it had kept up with the rising cost of living since the 1960s instead of falling way behind,” Sklar contends.
Among the backers of a minimum-wage adjustment is Jeff Furman, chairman of Ben & Jerry’s board of directors, who says, “I support a living wage economically, morally and with deep conviction. I support raising the federal minimum wage as an important step in that direction.”
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