Politics & Government

After Legislative Defeat, SLP's Winkler Fights on For 'Living Wages'

Rep. Ryan Winkler has been chairing the Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs.

St. Louis Park Rep. Ryan Winkler's ambitious bill to increase the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by August 2015 passed the House in May, before pressure from Republicans in the Senate scaled back the wage hike to a more modest $7.75 an hour.

But Winkler hasn't given up on dramatically raising minimum wages and, as chair of the off-session Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs, he's been agitating for higher pay for Minnesota workers.

"I think that making workers more productive helps bring in capital, helps bring in companies who want to locate here," he said in a video interview with the Minnesota Senate's Capitol Report. "In Minnesota, workers are more skilled, more productive, more educated than they have been in the past, and yet if you look at the wages they're receiving for that work, it's still declining compared to the economy as a whole."

The video, in which Winkler addresses the argument that higher wages hurt small businesses, is watchable above or on YouTube

The Living Wage committee will be starting listening sessions around the state in the upcoming months.


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