In President Barack Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address, he promised to take steps “wherever and whenever” he could to strengthen the middle class, even without congressional approval. One area in which the president announced he would go it alone is raising the minimum wage for workers on new government contracts. Employers across the United States need to pay attention to this executive wage hike.
“In the coming weeks, I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour—because if you cook our troops’ meals or wash their dishes, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty,” he told the crowd gathered in the Capitol.
