Minimum wage in Connecticut is higher than the federal minimum, $8.70 an hour instead of $7.25. In fact, the federal minimum is so ridiculously low that not many people are earning it. Maybe as few as 1.5 million, according to one study.
So, what happens if it goes up to $10.10 an hour here, or less likely, nationally. Some minimum wage workers will tell you that is still ridiculously low, $15 an hour is more like it. And, there are movements to help fast food workers bargain collectively for that kind of raise.
Today on the show, an hour or so before President Obama's appearance in New Britain, we talk to actual minimum wage workers about what it's really like trying to survive on that kind of pay.
GUESTS:
- Jim Stodder is a professor who teaches economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Hartford
- Chris D’Alessandro is a voiceover talent with an MBA who works part-time in seasonal minimum wage jobs.
- Victor Burgos is a minimum wage part-time worker at Burger King
- Daniela Gionfridda is a minimum wage full time worker at Stop and Shop
- Bonnie Stewart is vice president of government affairs for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association
- Barry Schwartz is the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College
