Labor advocates say they want the state of Connecticut to tax companies that pay low wages to their employees, companies like big box retail stores and fast food chains.
Advocacy group Connecticut Working Families says the state effectively subsidizes those companies. They say the companies pay their workers wages so low that they have to depend on government assistance.
State Senate Majority Whip Marilyn Moore (D-Bridgeport) is sponsoring a bill she says would bring in $300 million to the state to help pay for services rendered to the working poor.
“If you’re looking at revenue and you want to be fair, you should be looking at not just putting it on the back of low-wage earners,” Moore says.
The bill would only apply to companies, like Wal-Mart, Target and McDonald’s, that employ more than 500 people.
The minimum wage in Connecticut is $9.60 an hour. It’s scheduled to go up to $10.10 by 2017. The minimum wage in New York is $9 an hour. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing lawmakers to have it go up to $15 an hour over the next few years.
