State of the Union
By Michael R. Crittenden and Eric Morath
Wall Street Journal, Washington Wire, Jan 28, 2014
Republican lawmakers challenged President Barack Obama’s plan to raise the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors, suggesting it would have little impact on workers and could exacerbate partisan gridlock. Democrats were quick to celebrate the move, to be announced during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. It would raise the minimum wage for workers on new federal contracts to $10.10 an hour. ...
“These jobs include food service workers in federal buildings, people doing laundry at military bases and people cleaning floors at post offices,” said Amy Traub, a senior policy analyst at Demos ... Demos estimates that about 200,000 workers would benefit from the pay increase. ... It’s expected that any pay increase would be applied to future contracts, and would cover only workers employed under the contract — not a contractor’s entire workforce. ...
“To me it’s a slam dunk,” said Jon Cooper, president of Spectronics Corp. a Westbury, N.Y., manufacturer. “If a U.S. company is getting a contract paid for by federal taxpayer dollars, it makes perfect sense that they pay a $10.10 minimum wage.”
Spectronics has sold ultraviolet equipment and other products to the military and NASA. The wage increase could cause Mr. Cooper to give raises to as many as 10 of his 165 employees. ...
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