Governor Tom Vilsack is calling for a one-dollar hike in the minimum wage. The state and national minimum wage sits at $5.15 today. Vilsack, who is a democrat, proposes raising it 50-cents this year and another 50 cents next year to six-dollars-and-15 cents. Vilsack spokesman Joe Shannahan.says Vilsack fears the “new economy” with its high-skill, high-wage jobs will leave behind too many Iowans in lower-paying jobs.The National Economic Council estimates over 100-thousand Iowans earn between $5.15 and $6.15 an hour.In 1992, then-Governor Terry Branstad, a republican, approved a minimum wage increase that put Iowa’s minimum wage above the nation’s.
