Teens and adults alike should earn $15 minimum wage.
NEWTON, Ia. - Both adult workers and teenagers who've scored their first after-school job should be able to earn a $15 minimum wage, Martin O'Malley told a coffee shop crowd on Monday afternoon.
The Democratic presidential hopeful's remarks came after he politely brushed off a question from a Newton woman who said that teenagers shouldn't earn minimum wage because when young people make more money than they need, "they end up doing things with it that they probably shouldn't be." The woman said she wants to start a business and employ high school students, and she favored raising the minimum wage for adult workers.
But the woman told O'Malley that in the 1980s the town had a drug problem driven by "kids that had too much money." Standing on a chair, O'Malley turned to a row of young people sitting near the back of the audience and asked for their thoughts on the proposal.
"How many young people would like to make less than the minimum wage," he asked. "I'm watching all the faces in the back here."
No hands were raised. The woman, who left before O'Malley finished, responded that most teenage workers don't need $8 an hour (the current minimum wage is $7.25 an hour), because they still live at home and have few financial responsibilities beyond paying for "gas and dates."
"I hear you, I hear you," O'Malley said before moving on to another question.
Throughout the campaign, O'Malley — along with rival U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders — has advocated for a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour.
O'Malley's call mirrors the nationwide "fight for 15" that labor activists in the fast food industry have pushed for. Buffalo Wild Wings CEO Sally Smith told CNN in July that an increase to $15 an hour for fast food workers would hurt teenage workers because restaurants wouldn't be willing to invest in hiring young, inexperienced workers.
But in an interview after the stop O'Malley said "Yes" when asked whether increases in the minimum wage should include teens. Businesses under current federal law have to pay teenagers the minimum wage, though babysitting and seasonal or restaurant jobs can be exempt or subject to other requirements.
The Monday afternoon stop at Uncle Nancy's Coffee House, which has also hosted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was his second during the 2016 Iowa caucus cycle. The crowd of about 80 had grown since the former Maryland governor spoke to approximately 60 people at the coffee house in July, even as he lags in polls both nationally and in Iowa behind Clinton and Sanders.
Betsy Hart, 21, a Drake University senior studying psychology, said seeing O'Malley speak threw her support for Sanders into question. Hart raised her hand to ask O'Malley whether his proposal to give future students an option to graduate from college debt-free would have any relief for current students and graduates who are already saddled with loads of debt.
"Right now, it's between Bernie and O'Malley," she said. "Before coming here today, I was more towards Bernie but hearing him talk and everything he said it's definitely going to make me research more."
O'Malley told the Drake student that he'd push for reform that would allow students and their parents to refinance loans at lower rates.'
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2016/01/11/omalley-teens-and-adults-alike-should-earn-15-minimum-wage/78645966/