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CHANGED MOMENTUM within Quantum leap ; ...Economic Policy Institute. “There’s a sense of momentum.”
ReplyDeleteArindrajit Dube, an associate professor economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who studies minimum wage effects, said it’s historically significant to see fast-food workers and other low-wage employees publicly protesting.
“Where that leads to, I do not know,” he said. “But in the meantime, we should recognize that these are different patterns than we have seen in the past.”
Related: Hey millennials, we want to hear from you
Still, experts say that there are many states with more conservative legislatures where minimum wage workers will not likely see a wage increase unless there is a federal mandate to do so. The federal minimum wage was last increased, to $7.25 an hour, in mid-2009.
That’s left many low-wage workers watching the battle from the sidelines: They’re interested in the outcome, but it doesn’t affect their day-to-day lives yet.
Crystal Dupont and John White are two workers who were profiled by NBC News last March as part of the launch of our In Plain Sight project.
As 2013 comes to a close, NBC News asked White and Dupont to tell us, in their own words, how things are going for them now. Their responses have been edited for space and clarity.
John White: Living below my means, and grateful to God
In the last six months, things have improved for me. I still work at the same pizza restaurant, but the difference is that I'm getting more hours now.
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