States outpace feds on minimum wage (Stateline.org)

[marmar]

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
States outpace feds on minimum wage
By Christine Vestal, Stateline.org Staff Writer



Even though Congress has raised the federal minimum wage for the first time in 11 years, hourly workers in 30 states will be guaranteed higher pay than a new federal law requires when the law kicks in next month.

But the number of states besting the federal rate will decline as the new nationwide minimum rises in three steps, from $5.15 per hour to $5.85 on July 24, to $6.55 on July 24, 2008, and to $7.25 on July 24, 2009.

Unless new state wage increases are enacted, only 23 states will be above the federal minimum wage in July 2008 and 11 will be above in July 2009, according to an analysis by Liana Fox of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a research group that supports wage hikes.

Certain states – Connecticut, California, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, for example – are expected to continue a long tradition of boosting wages well above the federal minimum. “Some states pride themselves on keeping their labor rates above the federal level,” said Mike Flynn, of the Employment Policies Institute, which is opposed to wage hikes. He predicted that a handful of states will boost wages again in 2008.

Many of the states with higher minimum wages jumped in to help workers between 2004 and 2006, when attempts to boost the federal wage were bottled up in Congress.

This year, four states – Iowa, Kentucky, New Hampshire and New Mexico – raised their minimum wages above the federal rate for the first time, joining 29 other states. The new wage rates will have taken effect in only one of those states, Iowa, when the federal increase kicks in on July 24.

Last summer, Democrats in Congress attempted to increase workers’ pay, but the bill died after Republicans tied the wage hike to cuts in estate taxes that Democrats refused to accept. The stalemate broke after the 2006 elections, when the new Democratic majority made a national pay raise a top priority. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=218020

[Solo_in_MD]

1. Isn't this a good thing?

States know their needs better than the Feds, and they don't have to balance between places like Fairbanks and Selma.