Eighty percent of Americans want to hike wages, but powerful Republicans keep saying “no”
The first national campaigns of the Republican Party, more than 150 years ago, linked economic progress with democratic participation, urging immigrants and urban workers to “Vote Yourself a Farm” by empowering the party that would distribute land to the poor. So it shouldn’t be that surprising that states where voters are considering substantial minimum-wage hikes this fall are for the most part GOP bastions: Alaska (to $9.75 an hour), Arkansas (to $8.50), Nebraska (to $9) and South Dakota (to $8.50, with future hikes indexed to inflation). Those won’t be the only initiatives and referendums this November on… Read more…