Gubernatorial candidate Marty Seifert is confused about where Minnesota's new law giving minimum wage workers a raise ranks among other states.
And he groups it in among social issue laws he doesn't like, according to a news report by Minnesota Public Radio.
At the end of MPR's Tim Pugmire's article, Burned before, GOP governor hopefuls quiet on abortion, gay marriage, Seifert says:
A Republican could be elected governor this year, and the House majority could swing back to the GOP. But the Minnesota Senate isn't up for re-election this year and will remain in DFL control for at least two more years.
That political reality is why Former state Rep. Marty Seifert said he's not talking about a repeal of the same-sex marriage law or any other DFL-passed laws he opposes.
"It is my job as governor of the state to faithfully execute the laws that we have," he added. "The laws that we have are things like medical marijuana, gay marriage, the highest minimum wage in the United States. You may or may not disagree with that as a citizen or a policy maker, but be realistic that the stuff isn't getting repealed, and it's a waste of time to argue about it anymore."
According to the State Minimum Wages | 2014 Minimum Wage by State page on the National Conference of State Legislatures website, Minnesota will not have the highest minimum wage in the United States when workers receive the first of three raises on August 1, 2014.
While the state minimum wage for most Minnesotans will be $8.00 on August 1, equal to what their peers in Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island now earn, they won't be making as much as minimum wage workers in California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
Michigan's minimum wage workers will bump up to $8.15 an hour a month later on September 1, 2014, while New Yorkers making minimum wage will see their wages rise to $8.75 on effectiver December 31, 2014.
The second automatic raise for Minnesota's lowest paid workers comes on August 1, 2015, when the minimum wage for all but a few will go up to $9.00. The next raise comes on August 1, 2016, to $9.50 per hour, with annual indexed increases to take effect January 1, 2018.
Thus, by August 1, 2014, they will be making as much as the lowest-wage workers in California, although those coastal folks will see that climb to $10 on January 1, 2016. New Yorkers will catch up to that quarter-an-hour gap on December 31, 2015. Workers in the nation's capitol will blow pass low wage Minnesotans when their minimum hourly rate climbs to $10,50 on July 1, 2015, with another dollar raise a year later.
Connecticut? Minimum wage workers are getting a raise on January 1, 2015, to $9.15, with a hike to $9.60 effective January 1, 2016 and one to $10.10 a year later.
Maryland has scheduled a series of raises that will set its minimum wage at $10.10 effective August 1, 2018.
Massachusetts? $9.00 effective January 1, 2015; $10.00 effective January 1, 2016; $11.00 effective January 1, 2017.
Rhode Island will raise its minimum wage to $9.00 on January 1, 2015.
Vermont has schedule a series on hikes for low wage workers that will lapse Minnesota: $9.15 on January 1, 2015; $9.60 on January 1, 2016; $10.00 on January 1, 2017 and $10.50 effective January 1, 2018.
Other than those other states, Bluestem thinks Seifert is so right about Minnesota having "the highest minimum wage in the United States."
Seifert seems compelled to spell out the trifecta of spite, giving the sick, the poor and those who worked to make love the law good reason to join hands to work for his defeat in November should this stale piece of political toast somehow manage to win the August 12 Republican primary.
Photo: Marty Seifert, who wants a job enforcing laws he loathes.
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