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« National Grid: No power failures directly tied to heat | Today | Update: Season's first heat wave nets record temp » June 10, 2008R.I. Senate OKs bill increasing minimum wagePROVIDENCE -- The state Senate today approved raising Rhode Island's minimum wage, sending the bill over to the House of Repesentatives for consideration. The minimum wage would go to $7.60 an hour on Jan. 1, 2009 -- a 20-cent hourly increase over the state's current wage -- under legislation sponsored by Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis, a Coventry Democrat who owns Venus Pizza in Coventry. There would be annual wage increases every January 1, linked to the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast. Annual automatic increases would be capped at 3 percent. "This measure will bring a much-needed degree of stability and continuity to the process, which is beneficial for both working Rhode Islanders and businesses in our state," Raptakis said in the statement. He added that this bill "will take the politics out of this and establish a reasonable and specific way of calculating annual increases. It will make sure the minimum wage provides buying power for workers while giving small businesses the chance to effectively regulate and budget their personnel costs.” Rhode Island has among the nation's highest minimum-wage rates in the nation, at $7.40 an hour, The Journal has reported. As of Jan. 1 just seven other states had higher minimum wages, including neighboring- Massachusetts was at $8 an hour and Connecticut at $7.65 an hour. Republican Governor Carcieri let one minimum-wage increase go into effect without his signature early in his tenure, but vetoed another. The House and Senate have wide Democratic majorities. In Connecticut last month, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican, vetoed legislation that would have raised that state’s minimum wage from $7.65 to $8 starting Jan.1, 2009, and to $8.25 starting Jan. 1, 2010, according to a news release. -- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with Journal archival reports Posted by Mike McKinney CommentsKelly Thomas | June 10, 2008 9:33 PM link Kelly, The people in the supermarkets are union employees making FAR more than minimum wage. And if you're trying to 'live' off of minimum wage maybe you need to learn to type and use Word and Excel and get a real job as an office clerk somewhere and start working your way up the ladder. Greg | June 11, 2008 10:03 AM link $7.60 is not enough from people to live on. They need to up it to $8 or more. Greg - I work for a company - now retired - if it wasn't for the union - I would have not gotten paid what I did. I made over $20 a hour plus benefits. Unions really need to get involved in all jobs. SUPPORT THE UNIONS AND GET PAY FOR WHAT YOU DESERVE TO GET PAID Jan | June 28, 2008 2:50 PM link Post a commentPlease be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish. |
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ProJo 9 to 5 News Blog
Oct 2005 - March 2006
I'm really glad that someone is finally paying attention to the min wage rate in RI. It's about time.
But really, what's $.20 going to do for these people? I know that some people think that the people making these wages are teens, but next time you are in the supermarket or a gas station take a look around at those clerks. There's an awful lot of adults working there, trying to live off of those wages.