nothin 70,000 Get A Raise | New Haven Independent

70,000 Get A Raise

Connecticut’s 70,000 to 90,000 minimum-wage earners get a raise Wednesday, from $8.25 to $8.70 an hour.

The state’s minimum wage rises again a year later to $9 an hour.

The hikes take effect as state nationwide consider proposals to hike the minimum wage as a way to address the country’s growing income inequality. Democrats, reeling from the embarrassing rollout of Obamacare, sense an issue to push to their advantage in 2014 elections.

“Our country has always been committed to the idea that the United States is at its best when it has a robust and growing middle class. By raising
the minimum wage, we can make it just a little bit easier for working families to make ends meet,” New Haven state Sen. Martin Looney, who as Senate majority leader supported the hike, is quoted saying in a press release.

Speaking of Obamacare (aka the Affordable Care Act), blue Connecticut is at the head of the pack on that issue, too: It became the first state to meet the goal for signing people up for insurance under the law. Access Health CT, which handles enrollments here, announced that as of last week 34,295 people in the state had signed up for private plans administered under the law. The goal had been 33,000 sign-ups by year’s end. Click here for a previous report on New Haven’s hopping Obamacare storefront.  For an entertaining look at a less successful state Obamacare campaign, click here.

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