http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-31/higher-minimum-wages-on-new-year-s-day-for-workers-in-20-states.html
The minimum wage will rise in almost half of U.S. states Jan. 1 after local governments helped the lowest earners while efforts to approve a nationwide boost languish in Congress.
Twenty states from Hawaii to Connecticut will see increases in minimum hourly pay after voters approved ballot measures and legislatures enacted laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In nine of the states, the lowest pay will rise because of indexing to inflation.
“We’ll continue to see more action at the state level and at the local level,” said Ken Jacobs, chairman of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California at Berkeley. “It is a very politically popular measure and so we would expect in 2016 that we should see more minimum-wage ballot initiatives.”
President Barack Obama has urged Congress to raise the federal minimum to $10.10 from $7.25 as the gap between the nation’s rich and poor widens. Republicans in Congress, who have blocked repeated attempts to advance such legislation, will likely stymie the issue when they take control in January.
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