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                    Raise Minimum Wage, Obama Urges Congress

   by VOA News

   U.S. President Barack Obama said it's time to give America a raise.

   [1]In his weekly address Saturday, Obama said businesses are creating
   jobs at the fastest pace since the 1990s but the typical American
   family has not seen a raise since the 1990s.

   One of the "simplest and fastest" ways to begin helping people is by
   raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, he said.

   The current minimum wage rate of $7.25 an hour would leave a full-time
   worker, whose household included children, living below the poverty
   line, Obama said.

   He urged Congress to increase the minimum wage, last raised in 2009.

   Some 23 states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages above
   the [2]federal minimum wage, according to the National Conference of
   State Legislatures, which offers a [3]state-by-state breakout.

   Obama said he would keep fighting to raise the minimum wage because
   "America should forever be a place where your hard work is rewarded."

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   [4]http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-urges-congress-to-raise-minimum
   -wage/2480530.html

References

   1. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/10/11/weekly-address-america-place-where-hard-work-should-be-rewarded
   2. http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/minimumwage.htm
   3. http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx#1
   4. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-urges-congress-to-raise-minimum-wage/2480530.html