DICK MEISTER for BUZZFLASH at TRUTHOUT

Imagine trying to live on pay of $7.25 an hour. Even if you managed to work full eight-hour days, you'd be making only about  $58 a day, $230 a week, or a measly $12,000 a year.  And out of that would come taxes and other deductions.

According to the standards of the federal government, you'd be living in poverty. Yet $7.25 an hour is the federal minimum wage set by Congress.State legislatures can and do set state minimums higher than the federal rate, but never lower, much as some would like to.

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