Democratic State Sen. Nikiya Harris, D-Milwaukee, said Monday she is optimistic that a public hearing on a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage will eventually be scheduled.
The legislation to increase the wage to $7.60 an hour was introduced to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor in January, chaired by state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend. Harris has been urging Grothman to hold a hearing, even hand-delivering a letter to his office requesting such action. She said on Monday that she hasn't received a response, but is not giving up.
“With enough noise, with enough people standing up for this right, hopefully something will come through,” said Harris.
Wisconsin’s minimum wage is $7.25. Harris said there is a misconception that only high school and college students earn that amount. Rather, she insisted that there are also mothers who need to pay rent, feed their families, raise their children and this time of year, buy them Christmas gifts.
“Minimum wage has been an issue for a very long time in our state and in this country,” said Harris. “Now is the time because again, we have low-wage workers who are making poverty wages, they’ve been on their jobs five, 10 years and they haven’t seen an increase.”
Harris admitted that the proposed $7.60 figure is a starting point, and that President Barack Obama’s call for a federal minimum wage of $10.10 per hour is more on target.
Critics of raising the minimum wage say that doing so would cause the cost of goods and services to also go up, which will hurt the poor.
However, Harris disputed that argument, saying that minimum-wage earners would have more money in their pockets to pump into the local economy.
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