Minimum wage is reaching a fever pitch at the state and local level.
For the second year in a row, states are pushing to increase the minimum wage after President Obama’s attempt
to increase the federal rate to $10.10 an hour stalled in Congress.
So far in 2014, Connecticut,
Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota and West
Virginia have increased state minimum wage to higher than the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. When these measures take effect next year, half the states will have minimum wage rates higher than the federal level, notes Pew’s Stateline blog.
“The last time this many states had rates higher than the federal
level was in 2007… That year, Congress raised the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25
an hour, in three stages over two years,” they write, indicating that this could be a tipping point for raising the federal wage.
NFIB opposes raising the minimum wage, citing studies that show an increase would mean hundreds of thousands of lost jobs. Keep up with the latest small business news in your state.