Unions, Business Clash Over $15 Per Hour

http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-committee-passes-15-per-hour-20150404-story.html#page=1


By Christopher Keating

HARTFORD — Connecticut gained widespread attention in recent years as a national leader in Democratic circles by increasing the minimum wage and passing a first-in-the-nation statewide mandate for paid sick days for some service employees.

Business lobbyists battled against those measures as job-killers, while liberal lawmakers hailed Connecticut as a progressive leader for workers.

Now, union members are trying to take a third step with another first-in-the-nation bill that would place fines on large employers with more than 500 workers who fail to pay wages of at least $15 per hour. The fine would be $1 per hour per employee and could raise as much as $305 million for the state in the 2017 fiscal year that could then be used for child care and for home care for the elderly.

Mary Kay Henry, the international president of the two million member Service Employees International Union, traveled to Hartford recently as the legislature's human services committee passed the bill on to be considered by the full legislature, on a party line 11-7 vote. She views the committee vote as starting momentum across the country.

FULL story at link.