Minimum wage bill passes

The final shakedown was 72 to 43 as H2174 passed 3rd reading in the House. With a similar hike also ensconced in the Senate budget, it’s got the votes.

The final debate boiled down to:
• dire warnings of job losses “thousands”;
• an attempt to suspend the rules and amend the bill to give businesses a 3 percent “discount” if they pay their sales taxes on time (est. annual cost to the state: $220 million). The motion failed failed 53 to 62;
• dire warnings of upcoming price hikes at Burger King;
• inevitable references to illegal aliens being the real problem.

Alama Adams (D-Guilford) appealed to the House to dedicate at least one day to the working poor.
Joe Hackney (D-Orange, Chatham) said that as he sat and listened to the arguments against the hike it was evident that the difference was fundamental. “They don’t believe that minimum wage laws should exist,” he said. “How out of step with the people of North Carolina can you be? We passed that step years ago.”

The N.C. Justice Center estimates the bill directly affects roughly 139,000 low wage workers in North Carolina.
The buying power of today’s $5.15 is at its lowest point in history. NC Fair Wages site.
It’s been nine years since this state raised its minimum wage.
Chart via NC Dept. of Labor