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Connecticut voters support 71 percent to 25 percent raising the state's minimum wage, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday, March 4.
Obama is pushing for an increase to $10.10 an hour, a plan that is supported by Gov. Dannel Malloy at the state level. Both will appear at the rally at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain to rally support for the plan Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Connecticut General Assembly’s Labor Committee approved legislation that would increase the state’s minimum wage to $10.10.
“For too long, the minimum wage has not kept up with the cost of living,” said Malloy in a statement. “As studies have shown, the workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase brought home 46 percent of their household’s total wage and salary income in 2011. When workers earn more money, businesses will have more customers. This modest boost will help those earning the least to make ends meet.”
In the Quinnipiac poll, support for increasing the minimum wage is 93 percent to 6 percent among Democrats and 73 percent to 23 percent among independent voters, with Republicans opposed 53 percent to 41 percent.
Among women, support is 78 percent to 18 percent, the poll said, and support is 64 percent to 32 percent among men.
Support is 69 percent or higher among all age groups. When offered four choices, voters said:
- 42 percent want to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour;
- 8 percent want to increase it to something less than $10.10 per hour;
- 20 percent want to increase it to more than $10.10 per hour;
- 25 percent want no increase.
When asked whether a minimum wage increase would help rather than hurt Connecticut's economy, voters agree 47 percent to 28 percent. But Republicans say 57 percent to 17 percent that it would hurt the economy, the poll said.
The minimum wage in Connecticut was increased to $8.70 per hour on Jan. 1, 2014. A second increase to $9 per hour is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2015. In his State of the State address, Malloy proposed raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2017, mirroring recent national efforts by Obama and congressional leaders to raise the federal minimum wage to that same amount.
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