Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI)
Low-wage workers in Wisconsin are suing Gov. Scott Walker's administration over its refusal to raise the minimum wage in accord with the state's unusual law requiring the minimum wage to be a living wage that provides workers "reasonable comfort, reasonable physical well-being, decency, and moral well-being."
After the workers petitioned Walker to raise the state minimum wage from the federal level of $7.25 an hour, his Department of Workforce Development rejected them, claiming $7.25 is a living wage despite the workers' accounts of putting off payment for necessary things like diabetes test strips.
Walker's administration is responding to the lawsuit with the same seriousness it took the petition for a higher minimum wage:
Asked about the suit, a spokesperson for DWD e-mailed: “While the Department has yet to receive formal notification of a lawsuit being filed, we would point out that most of the complainants who are arguing the minimum wage is not a living wage are making more than the minimum wage—up to $15.07 an hour.”
Aaand ... because people making a little more than minimum wage say they're having trouble making ends meet, therefore we shouldn't raise the minimum wage? That doesn't even deserve to be labeled as logic in a sarcastic vein. It makes no sense. But that kind of disdain for workers is Scott Walker all over.
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Wisconsin workers deserve so much more—in pay and in respect from their governor.