Obama Proposes Raising Minimum Wage To $9 In SOTU

President Obama proposed raising the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour and to tie it to the cost of living, during his State of the Union speech Tuesday.

"Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour," Obama said, according to prepared remarks.

He continued: "This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families. It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank; rent or eviction; scraping by or finally getting ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets. In fact, working folks shouldn’t have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up while CEO pay has never been higher. So here’s an idea that Governor Romney and I actually agreed on last year: let’s tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on."

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.

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