Gov. Ned Lamont is frustrating liberals on taxes, but he underscored Wednesday he is with them on the minimum wage and paid family and medical leave.
minimum wage
Posted inPolitics
Democrats unite on medical leave, $15 minimum wage
House and Senate Democrats topped their legislative agenda Monday with pledges to adopt paid family medical leave and a $15-per-hour state minimum wage.
Posted inPolitics
Wave of new women Dems hope to impact legislative agenda
Female candidates helped boost Democratic clout in the General Assembly during the midterm election and now they’d like to see the issues they campaigned on — issues like paid family and medical leave — at the top of the agenda in the next legislative session.
Posted inPolitics
With eye to elections, Malloy signs pay-equity law
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a bipartisan pay-equity bill Tuesday at a celebration skipped by Republicans and colored by the legislature’s failure to deliver other items on an election-year agenda at least partly geared to working women: A $15 minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, and an overhaul of sexual harassment laws.
Posted inMoney
Fight for $15? Try for $12? It depends on Sen. Joan Hartley.
The most powerful leaders at the State Capitol want to raise Connecticut’s minimum wage. But in a Senate evenly split, the assumption is they need all 18 Democratic senators and the tie-breaking vote of the lieutenant governor. And that means doing business with Sen. Joan V. Hartley, the conservative Democrat with a history frustrating her party’s liberal leaders over issues of taxation, spending, business regulations and, yes, the minimum wage.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy backs higher minimum wage, hedging on how high
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Democratic legislators on Thursday outlined similar agendas for the remaining nine weeks of the 2018 legislative session: Pay equity, expanded sick time and other workplace issues largely directed to women, a constituency that polls indicate has further tilted toward Democrats since the election of President Trump.
Posted inPolitics
Campaign finance, minimum wage bills in the mix despite budget crush
With a little more than two weeks remaining until the session’s June 7 adjournment deadline, dozens of bills unrelated to the state’s budget are certain to be voted upon. Legislative leaders say campaign finance reform and a minimum wage increase are among the contentious issues that could come up in the session’s final days.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Battles over labor’s wages heat up at Capitol
The clash over labor costs intensified Tuesday at the state Capitol. While one panel split over a proposal to boost the minimum wage, labor groups rallied against changes to the prevailing wage law.
Posted inPolitics
Progressives struggle to regain momentum on labor bills
The Democratic leader of the evenly divided state Senate led the kickoff Thursday of an uphill campaign to raise the $10.10 minimum wage to $15 on Jan. 1, 2022, and also make Connecticut the fifth state in the U.S. to enact a worker-funded insurance program of paid medical leave.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The minimum wage in Connecticut: We need to look elsewhere
In December I expect that the Low Wage Board will recommend an increase in the state’s minimum wage. Should that occur, I will not be supporting the board’s decision. Given how the board was legislatively constituted, it is an outcome that should come as no surprise. With the increase to $10.10 in January 2017, Connecticut’s ability to attract and retain businesses will continue to fall and the result of any further increase will result in an explosion in our already unsupportable social service costs.
Posted inMoney
Report: CT is too reliant on low-wage jobs
Slow wage growth, an increasing reliance on low-wage jobs, and “persistently high unemployment” among minorities and workers without a college degree are threatening Connecticut’s long-term well-being, according to the annual Labor Day report from Connecticut Voices for Children.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Higher taxes negate the higher minimum wage
“We” in Connecticut boast of raising the minimum wage. But for what purpose? “We” said it was to offset the high cost of living in this state. But it looks like it was just another rather nefarious way to justify increasing taxes — like the impending insurance increases, along with a proposed mileage tax. It seems to defeat the intention of raising the minimum wage.
Posted inPolitics
CT delegates head to Philly seeking unity – and an end for Trump
WASHINGTON — Connecticut Democrats at their party’s convention in Philadelphia probably won’t face the kind of drama displayed at last week’s Republican gathering in Cleveland, with its charges of plagiarism in Melania Trump’s speech and a floor fight by anti-Trump forces — but they won’t be spared controversy.
Posted inNews
CT lawmakers, advocates open to new Puerto Rico bill
WASHINGTON — A rare compromise between the White House and House Republicans on how to help Puerto Rico has received cautious acceptance from Connecticut lawmakers and advocates who had rejected previous congressional efforts to help an island mired in a severe financial crisis.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
If raising the minimum wage kills jobs, why don’t we lower it?
If raising the federal minimum wage would hurt businesses, as many aver, then it stands to reason that lowering the federal standard from $7.25 an hour would help. What are we waiting for? How about $5, perchance $3 an hour? That would be a steroid injection for our sluggish economy. Connecticut, which keeps raising its lowest wage, just doesn’t get it.
