Obama Said to Back Democrat Push for $10.10 Minimum-Wage

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-08/obama-said-to-back-democrat-push-for-10-10-minimum-wage.html

President Barack Obama supports an effort by congressional Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage to about $10 an hour, higher than the rate he called for earlier this year, according to a White House official.

Proposals from House and Senate Democrats would boost the rate to $10.10 over two years, up from the current $7.25 an hour and more than the $9 proposed by Obama in his February State of the Union speech. The president backs the increase as a way to help working families, according to the official, who described Obama’s support yesterday on condition of not being identified.

While Democrats, who control the Senate, overwhelmingly favor the change, it stands little chance of passing in the Republican-led House of Representatives, said Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois. That’s because House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, opposes such efforts, he said.

“It’s going to that same room, that little dark room, where Boehner puts all of the bipartisan measures out of the Senate,” Durbin told reporters yesterday after a meeting of Senate Democrats. In a politically divided Congress, the House and Senate have refused to take up certain bills approved in the other chamber.