Statement in Response to Massachusetts State House Hearings Today

In 1912, Massachusetts became the first state to adopt a minimum wage, and we’ve been a leader ever since in guaranteeing that our most vulnerable workers are paid fairly. Massachusetts already has a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum, at $6.75 an hour. I strongly support the effort by James Marzilli and Marc Pacheco in the state legislature to raise it to $8.25 over the next two years. 260,000 working men and women in our communities will benefit from the increase, and they deserve it.

It’s a scandal that the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress refuse to raise the federal minimum wage. I intend to keep pressing the issue in Congress. No one who works for a living should have to live in poverty.