Southern States Largely Excluded from Historic Minimum Wage Increases

As the ongoing global pandemic has drawn attention to the fact that the people who keep the country running are overworked and underpaid, workers haveShowing the tremendous strides made by Fight for $15, a record number of states and localities are raising their wages this year.

But these victories have not been evenly felt by all workers nationwide. “Twenty states have refused to raise their wage floors above the federal rate for over a decade,” as Lathrop points out. “Roughly half of those states are in the U.S. South, where a majority of Black workers live, and where, not surprisingly, they experience higher levels of poverty and downward economic mobility.”

Meanwhile, eight Southern states have minimum wages equal to the current federal minimum of $7.25, which is not enough to lift a family of two above the poverty line: Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Georgia’s minimum wage is just $5.15 an hour, so the federal standard applies in most cases., further exacerbating the inequity between states that have raised their minimum wages and states that have not.

— 10 of them in the South — risk their lives for the federal tipped minimum wage of just $2.13 an hour., right before the pandemic hit. Many others have said that they will stay only if they receive a livable wage.that was introduced in Congress last year by Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is a “smart policy choice” made even more urgent by rising consumer prices. So far that legislation has not advanced.

And this what the Republican zombies, not understanding what their 'betters' are trying to do, want for the workers of this nation - which, ironically, includes them.

Right to Work states mean: 'right-to-work for unliveable wages'

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