Legislation introduced in the state House on Tuesday would nearly double Georgia’s minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.
House Bill 272, sponsored by Rep. Rahn Mayo, D-Decatur, would increase the current $5.15 per hour rate, and provided for cost of living increases each year. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
The bill, sponsored by four Democrats, faces a difficult path in a Republican-dominated General Assembly. But, lawmakers and voters in many other states have recently agreed to increase the minimum wage.
Voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota approved minimum wage increases at the polls in 2014, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Lawmakers in Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., enacted increases in 2014.
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