Reid Says He Won’t Consider Minimum Wage Below $10.10

[Purveyor]

By Kathleen Hunter and Michael C. Bender Feb 25, 2014 3:57 PM ET

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he won’t consider raising the national minimum wage to a level lower than $10.10 an hour, even as a way to coax support from reluctant Democrats seeking re-election this year.

Asked if there would be a compromise to increase the wage and still keep it below the $10.10-an-hour level President Barack Obama endorsed in his Jan. 28 State of the Union address, Reid responded yesterday, “Not with me.”

Reid made his comments as at least three Senate Democrats - - Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Warner of Virginia -- expressed concerns about raising the federal wage floor to $10.10 an hour. All three are up for re-election in November, with Landrieu and Pryor running in states that Obama lost by double-digits in 2012.

“There ought to be an increase in the minimum wage,” Warner said today in an interview. “I think there’s a valid debate about amount and timing.”

Many Republicans including House Speaker John Boehner oppose an increase, saying it would lead companies to cut jobs. A report last week by the Congressional Budget Office, Congress’s nonpartisan research arm, said the Democratic plan may cost as many as 500,000 jobs.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-25/minimum-wage-vote-probably-to-be-delayed-in-u-s-senate.html

[Autumn]

1. I find it disgusting that he has to coax support from reluctant Democrats .

[Scuba]

2. Go for $15 Harry, and put those who won't support at least $12 in the public eye.

[Laelth]

3. You have to give this to the President. He runs a tight ship.

The leadership in Washington will not and does not cross him. If President Obama says $10.10/hr. then, by dog, it's gonna be $10.10/hr. ... until the President changes his position (and I'm not suggesting that he will).

-Laelth