Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-WM)
On the one hand, Pryor kinda sorta supports a state ballot initiative that would raise the Arkansas minimum wage to a whopping $8.50 an hour over three years. (The state currently has a $6.25 minimum wage on the books, below the federal level, so that's the initiative's starting point.) On the other hand, Pryor opposes raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10:
“I know $10.10 still isn’t a whole lot of money, but I think it’s too much, too fast,” Pryor, who is seeking a third Senate term, said in an interview at the Capitol. “I’m not supportive of that.”Seriously. It's not much, but it's too much for the poors, apparently. That's $21,000 a year for a full-time worker, enough to get a family of three out of poverty, but leaving them well within food stamp eligibility. Meanwhile, 52 percent of Arkansas voters support raising the minimum wage to $10 while just 38 percent are opposed, according to a Public Policy Polling poll, with 47 percent saying they'd be more likely to vote for a candidate who supported raising the minimum wage. Maybe that's why Pryor went way out on a limb to say raising the state minimum wage all the way to $8.50 over three years is "a pretty reasonable approach." But he should look at another question in that poll: 73 percent agreed with the statement that "Someone who works full-time should be paid enough to keep them out of poverty." That's your winning argument, and it points to a wage well above $8.50. Except that apparently Walmart's money (they're Pryor's sixth-largest campaign donor) speaks more loudly—and Pryor doesn't seem to get that being Walmart's lapdog won't make them go to bat for him over a Republican.
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