The states, joined by Alaska, Arkansas and South Dakota, agreed to increase hourly pay rates above the $7.25 federal level, according to preliminary results from the Associated Press. The votes add fuel to a debate likely to emerge as a lightning rod in the 2016 U.S. presidential race.
“The current gridlock in government and failure to make significant progress on the minimum wage at the federal level has led to more activity on the state and local levels to create pressure on Congress from the bottom,” said Anthony Corrado, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
President Barack Obama has pressed Congress to raise the federal minimum to $10.10. Most Republicans in Congress have blocked the Democratic-led Senate’s repeated attempts to advance such legislation. Meanwhile, California lawmakers this year agreed to increase the state’s minimum to $10 an hour by 2016. Seattle’s city council approved a $15 minimum, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has ordered city contractors to pay at least $13 an hour.
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