Democrats in the Iowa Legislature say raising the state’s minimum wage will be one of their top priorities in the 2006 legislative session.
House Democrat Leader Pat Murphy of Dubuque will propose a dollar an hour increase, boosting the state’s minimum wage to six-dollars-and-15 cents. “For people who play by the rules and work hard and earn the minimum wage, they have not seen an increase in the minimum wage for nine years,” Murphy says. “We think it’s time we look at addressing the minimum wage.”
Murphy says Iowans who take care of children and the elderly other are paid the minimum wage, and it’s time to give those people a raise. The measure is unlikely to win the backing of Republicans, though, dooming its passage in the legislature.