Schwarzenegger said to seek minimum wage hike

[Michu]

Election is near

Schwarzenegger said to seek minimum wage hike
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose a $1 increase in the state's minimum wage during his annual state of the state address next week, an official said on Friday.

The proposal would boost the minimum wage to $7.75 an hour from the current $6.75 an hour, with a first 50-cent hike coming on September 1 and the second in July 2007, said the official, who did not want to be named.
Schwarzenegger, who hopes to win a second term in office in November 2006, vetoed in September a $1 raise in the minimum wage that was also indexed for inflation. His upcoming proposal does not include automatic increases because of inflation, the aide said.

"This autopilot mechanism fails to account for changes in the economy which could have deleterious effects on the economic health of the state," Schwarzenegger wrote in his September veto.
The celebrity governor has argued in the past against over-regulation of the economy, saying such rules put the nation's most populous state at a disadvantage with neighboring states.

Yet after a major electoral setback in a special November election he called, the Republican is seeking to boost his popularity with voters in a state where Democrats are the largest political party.
Schwarzenegger is also expected to call for massive spending on highways and other infrastructure in his Jan 5. speech.

More than half of all U.S. states maintain the same minimum wage as the federal standard of $5.15, with the others setting either no minimum wage law or other rates, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
California's minimum wage last rose on January 1, 2002, by 50 cents.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051231/pl_nm/economy_california_wages_dc

Greetings
Michael

[chris015]

Hehe, I remember that I read an interview with Arnie some years ago, when he became governor. He said that at night, when he is in bed with his wife, she, as a Democrat, tells him to increase the minimum wages. Well, seems to have worked.