For minimum-wage earners in Minnesota, ‘a constant juggling act’

The state legislator spending a week on minimum wage met today with three Minnesotans for whom the minimum-wage challenge is an everyday reality. Four days into his five-day walk in the shoes of the state’s lowest-paid workers, Rep. Jason Metsa listened as three minimum-wage earners related the experiences Metsa wouldn’t have during his five-day experiment. […]

Five days on minimum wage: Rep. Metsa goes grocery shopping

Peanut butter or jelly? Juice or coffee? Dry spaghetti or ravioli in a can? Those aren’t decisions Rep. Jason Metsa usually wrestles with in the grocery store, but the Iron Range DFLer is tightening his belt this week after signing a pledge to live on Minnesota’s minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for five days. […]

Nancy Goldman: Increase the minimum wage without penalizing servers

Minnesota is one of only seven states that does not have “tip credit” or Tip Penalty laws. Minnesota minimum wage was last increased in 2007. As the current legislators look to increase our state minimum wage, which is among the lowest in the country, Hospitality Minnesota, the restaurant employers association, is once again trying to […]

Union agenda includes minimum-wage hike, privacy protections for Minnesota workers

Emboldened by victories won at the polls in November, the state’s largest labor federation will push an ambitious legislative agenda that calls for hiking the state’s minimum wage, extending unemployment benefits for locked-out workers and expanding the freedoms and protections Minnesotans enjoy in the workplace. The Minnesota AFL-CIO, which represents more than 1,000 affiliate unions […]

Letter to the Editor: Bachmann isn’t invincible

Election night was a great night for Democrats across Minnesota, with the exception of three congressional races. Three Republican incumbents won re-election to the U.S.  House, including Michele Bachmann in the 6th District. To say that Congresswoman Bachmann is a polarizing figure in American politics is an understatement. Bachmann is so extreme that the GOP leadership […]

Outside John Kline’s office, minimum-wage workers rally for a raise

Could John Kline live on $290 per week? That’s the question several constituents from the 2nd Congressional District asked their Republican representative in the weeks leading up to today’s three-year anniversary of the last federal minimum-wage increase. When Kline failed to provide his constituents with an answer, they decided to deliver a letter to his […]