NELSON SUPPORTS MINIMUM WAGE HIKE, SMALL BUSINESS TAX RELIEF
Nebraska's Senator Ben Nelson voted today to raise the minimum wage while lessening the burden of the increase on small businesses. The bill (HR 2) incrementally raises the minimum wage from $5.15/hour to $7.25/hour over two years and passed the Senate 94-3.
"The minimum wage has not been increased in a decade," said Nelson. "But nearly every other economic indicator from housing to insurance has gone up in that time frame and today's families relying on the minimum wage can barely get by."
Nelson also supported the addition of a small business tax package that extends the work opportunity tax credit for employers who hire certain low-income workers, extends the 15-year depreciation of improvements made on leased property, broadens the pool of companies that can lessen their tax burden by organizing as S corporations, and extends a provision allowing small businesses to deduct up to $112,000 in new investments in the year which they are made from their income.
A full-time minimum wage earner, working 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, all 52 weeks in the year, without a single day off, takes home just $10,700 - which is $5,000 below the poverty line for a family of three.
Nationally, 80 percent of Americans who would benefit from an increased minimum wage are adults. And nearly four million of these minimum-wage earning adults are working to support not only themselves, but their children and families. In Nebraska, 61,000 working Nebraskans would benefit from a minimum wage increase.
The first increase would happen 60 days after enactment (to $5.85/hr), the second increase would happen 1 year after that (to $6.55/hr), and the third increase would happen 1 year after that (to $7.25/hr).
"I don't think anyone who works for a living should be forced to live in poverty," said Nelson. "This bill helps our families and our small businesses keep up with today's financial realities."
http://bennelson.senate.gov/news/details.cfm?id=268347&&