President To Sign Minimum Wage Executive Order

Sure to infuriate Republicans, President Obama will sign an executive order raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for those working under government contracts.

By signing the executive order, the president will make good on a policy proposal he laid out during his State of the Union address earlier this month. Neither the House nor the Senate has passed a minimum wage bill since the president first proposed raising the pay last February, so the president said he would hike the wage-floor himself for workers under federal contracts…

In addition to setting a minimum wage of $10.10 — the same rate proposed in congressional Democrats’ wider minimum wage bill — the executive order will also tie the contractors’ minimum wage to an inflation index, according to an outline released by the White House earlier this month. Labor groups and progressive members of Congress had been calling upon the president to sign such an order in the months leading up to his State of the Union address, while groups of workers employed by federal contractors took part in one-day walkouts to protest low pay.

Although janitors and concessions workers are expected to benefit from the order, it won’t be clear exactly who may see a raise until the language is made public. Since it will pertain only to future government contracts, it could be years before some current workers are covered by the order. Meanwhile, advocates for the disabled have been pressuring the administration to include workers in so-called “14(c) programs” who can then be paid a sub-minimum wage under current law.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.