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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Joseph Rendeiro
(202) 776-1566
jrendeiro@nclr.org
Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Labor finalized a rule to boost the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors to $10.10 per hour. The rule fulfills an executive order that President Obama announced in his State of the Union Address last January, which was enthusiastically cheered by NCLR (National Council of La Raza).
“NCLR commends the administration for raising the wages of employees who do business with the federal government,” said Eric Rodriguez, Vice President of the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation at NCLR. “Not only is this the right thing to do to lift working families out of poverty and to help them keep pace with the rising cost of living, but it should also be a catalyst for Congress to boost the federal minimum wage.”
According to the Economic Policy Institute, this mandate on the minimum wage will set a floor on wages for the nearly 20 percent of all federal contractors earning less than poverty-level wages, who are disproportionately minority and female. The new wage level will apply to employees who work on new or renewed contracts issued on or after January 1, 2015. The Department of Labor estimates that 200,000 new workers would see their wages rise as a result of the rule.
Congress failed to advance legislation this year to raise the federal minimum wage for all workers from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour. Enacting a hike in the federal minimum wage would provide higher wages for nearly 28 million people, about one-quarter of who are Hispanic. In a poll conducted earlier this year by NCLR and Latino Decisions, more than half of Latino voters (55 percent) said that they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports raising the minimum wage. That same poll found that nearly 70 percent of Latino voters were concerned that they were not earning enough to cover their basic expenses.
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