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Tuesday, January 04, 2005
The Northwest continues to lead in progressivity
William McCall of the Associated Press writes that once again, this year Oregon and Washington will lead the nation in terms of the minimum wage. He writes,
Oregon has the second-highest minimum wage in the nation as 2005 begins, trailing only its neighbor to the north, Washington state, where the minimum is now $7.35 per hour.Check out the entire piece as McCall reports in-depth in the possible connections between the minimum wage and the unemployment rate. It's a good piece and I definitely recommend it.
The $7.25-per-hour rate in Oregon that took effect Saturday is well above the federal minimum of $5.15 per hour, a rate that has not changed since 1997.
The minimum wage has been a politically charged issue since Oregon became the national pioneer for a basic wage level in 1913 with a successful crusade by Sister Miriam Theresa to force the Legislature to pass a wage law to address sweatshop practices in the state.
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