Minneapolis Raises Minimum Wages to $15 an Hour
According to the report of Associated Press, the City Council of Minneapolis has passed the ordinance to increase the minimum wages in the city to 15 dollars per hour. This decision was made at the end of June. According to the new regulation, large businesses that employ 100 workers and more will be obligated to provide the employees with a wage raise. To be more precise, the current minimum wage in the state of Minnesota is 9.50 dollars per hour; this minimum will be increased gradually over the next several years. In particular, on the 1st of January of 2018, the minimum will be raised to 10 dollars per hour.
In that manner, by July 2024, the overall rise to 15 dollars an hour will be implemented. Smaller businesses will be required to increase the wage gradually over a slightly longer period. The supporters of the ordinance noted that a higher wage would benefit low-income workers who represent a large portion of the city’s population, and the critics pointed out that the regulation may hurt smaller and new businesses or make the employers reduce working hours and cut staff to avoid financial losses due to wage changes.
Similar measures were taken in some other large cities of the US – San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. However, some of the city authorities expect that the law will be challenged and the wage raise may be repealed similarly to how it happened in the state of Missouri when the state minimum wage of 7.70 dollars an hour was to undergo regulation and be raised to 10 dollars an hour.
New Analysis Shows Government Could Run out of Cash in Early to Mid-October
According to the information provided in the Congressional Budget Office report that was released at the end of June this year, there is a possibility that by the middle of October, the US government will run out of funds to pay the bills; this situation could only be addressed by the increase in the federal borrowing limit that could be made by Congress. In March 2017, the current federal debt of the United States has hit the limit imposed by Congress.
In that way, the lawmakers are working on the creation of a new law raising the debt ceiling. The Treasury Department that has been using cash conservation strategies to continue paying the bills of the government is expected to run out of cash and means as well by March next year. The delay in raising the debt ceiling will slow down the payments for governmentally funded activities and programs. Using the additional sources of income, the government could reduce the federal debt for the next few years; however, the other activities of the state are likely to lead to its steady increase that may continue for over a decade.
Moreover, the growth of the debt is aggravated by the weak tax collections that show a lower level of revenue that is significantly lower than those of the previous several years. The nearest increase in debt that is likely to take place within the next decade is estimated to approximately 7% from the current prospect. This tendency will occur because of the anticipated growth in the war-related activities carried out in Afghanistan that will require additional funding.