Democrats, unions stump for minimum-wage increase (MA)

By David Kibbe
Ottaway News Service

Labor unions and Democrats in the state Legislature are launching a campaign to raise the state’s minimum wage for the first time in four years, arguing that inflation is cutting into workers’ pay.

Sen. Joan M. Menard, D-Fall River, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the Greater Southeastern Massachusetts Labor Council, the Coalition for Social Justice and low-wage workers from across Southeastern Massachusetts held a rally at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the UMass Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center in Fall River to call for the change.

A bill filed by Sen. Marc R. Pacheco, D-Taunton, and Rep. James Marzilli, D-Arlington, would boost the minimum wage from $6.75 an hour to $7.50 an hour in 2006 and $8.25 an hour in 2007. After that, the minimum wage would be tied to inflation through the Consumer Price Index.

A study last year by the Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center, a research group that supports an increase in the minimum wage, found the purchasing value of the minimum wage had decreased 6 percent since 2001 due to inflation. <snip>

http://www.ack.net/minimumwage031705.html

I can't take these minimum wage jobs anymore. I work 30+hours a week and barely get 150. (I know I don't have much to complain about, in comparison to other parts of the country, but like most others I can't afford a GD thing.)

Thank you for posting struggle4progress! :hi:

... to do the same. Scare a few troglodytes half to death -- and win!