Obama to renew call for minimum wage increase as protests planned across US

[G_j]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/obama-minimum-wage-increase-protests

• President has indicated he supports raise from $7.25 to $10.10
• Union-backed protests set for Thursday in cities across US

Wednesday 4 December 2013 09.46 EST

Barack Obama will repeat his call for an increase in the minimum wage to close an ever-growing inequality gap in a speech delivered in one of the poorest corners of the nation's capital.

The president will deliver remarks on Wednesday in Anacostia, a deprived neighbourhood just six-miles south of the White House, the day before hundreds of fast-food restaurant workers in more than a hundred US cities strike in a major demonstration over low pay.

The federal minimum wage currently stands at $7.25 an hour, or about $15,000 a year, and Obama has already indicated he will back a Senate measure to increase the minimum statutory pay to $10.10.

A union-backed day of action on Thursday follows hundreds of protests last Friday targeting Walmart over pay and conditions. Obama has repeatedly laid out the case for addressing poverty, acknowledging that while the US economy has grown modestly under his tenure at the White House, unemployment has remained steadfastly high and unemployment has grown.

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[FreakinDJ]

1. It should be $15

[NuclearDem]

2. Yeah, but protesting and taking to the streets is beneath us.

Also, Occupy accomplished nothing.