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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Minimum Wage Can Have Maximum Impact in MA

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Tuesday, September 6, 2011   

BOSTON - A Labor Day report from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center says workers in Massachusetts are faring better than many across the country, and a higher minimum wage could be one of the factors. The report says growth in real wages has been tepid for lower-wage earners, but it appears that increases in the state's statutory minimum wage, which is higher than the federal minimum wage, may have helped boost paychecks.

Paul Sonn, an expert on the minimum wage with the National Employment Law Project, where he is co-legal director, says increasing the minimum wage is one prescription to cure the downturn.

"So, it actually is a very simple way to increase consumer spending, which is what we need to do."

The Budget and Policy Center says increases in the state minimum wage have typically been followed by increases in hourly wages for those who earn slightly more than minimum wage. Sonn says the spillover effect is more spending, which is just what the economy needs right now.

Some have proposed eliminating or lowering the minimum wage as a way to compete for low-wage jobs with such countries as China, but Sonn says that argument doesn't hold up, because most of the minimum-wage jobs in this country are service-related and can't be exported.

"You can't serve a Big Mac or clean an office building from Beijing or, you know, from Bombay. Those are all locally-based jobs."

Sonn says increasing the minimum wage is a simple and effective stimulus that instantly puts more money in the economy and helps those who most need it.

The report can be found at www.massbudget.org




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