A roundtable discussion was held today in Gary regarding President Obama's proposal to raise the federal minimum wage. Acting Deputy Administrator of the Wage and Hour Department of the Department of Labor, Mary Beth Maxwell, says they have been traveling the country and hearing stories from hard-working-people and finding folks cannot make ends-meet on $7.25 an hour. She says people are having to choose between medicine or food, and struggling to even get to their minimum wage job due to high transportation costs.
Maxwell says despite the argument that this would have a negative effect on job growth, which it doesn't, raising the minimum wage strengthens the economy because people spend the money, which is good for local businesses.
Maxwell says this is just the beginning of this process, which is meant to build majority support by lifting up the stories of people affected by it, which she says most Americans believe should happen.
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