It is a minimum wage, not a living wage. It should be $7.00 per hour or less.

Minimum wage isn't meant to support a family. Most people have enough sense to wait until they have the skills and experience to EARN a good living before starting a family.

I think before anyone can hold public office they should have to live on minimum wage alone for an entire year.

Does someone think that moving from $15K annually to $20K annually makes people live the American Dream and make incomes equal (except socialist Tom and his buddy communist George that is)? If that is true, why not raise it to the current US median income level of about $20 an hour. Heck, one piece of legislation wipes out poverty overnight...what a Liberal extravaganza! The answer is simple, every good and service would rise in price by 100% in order to pay the new wage. Liberals would love to alter the science of economics, but the fact is the market determines the wages and if legislation alters the formula, it adjusts elsewhere. Best to eliminate a minimum wage and force people to complete based on performance. Then and only then will people who are willing to do what is necessary make a wage that is comfortable.

Raising the minimum wage means raising the unemployment rate, it's that simple.

spend more, inflate, devalue the dollar. Who does this behavior hurt most- people making minimum wage. if the president really wants to help he should encourage the fed to raise interest rates and encourage congress to spend less.

The way prices are rising.... It'll be 20 bucks an hour in a year

Asking to raise the minimum wage to $9.00 Dollars an hour now is not the right thing to do.

How about letting the interested parties, the employer and the employee, make their OWN decision regarding compensation? That you want the government to interfere in what ought to be a PRIVATE contract is very disturbing to me, editors.

$9 an hour is a buck-an-hour less than the kids working at McDonalds up here, without the signing bonus!

Though I empathize with the intent of raising the minimum wage, the reality is that it has the opposite impact. It hurts those who most need a job - the unskilled, unemployed youth. Each time the minimum wage goes up, their unemployment rate also goes up with it. And they have, by far, the highest unemployment rate of any other group! Those unskilled youth who don't get a job eventually become supported by the government, whereas those that do get jobs will earn their way to middle class earnings 10 to 15 years down the road. Most of the minimum wage workers are NOT the family breadwinners. They are the young and unskilled. Let's make sure they eventually join the middle class by eliminating the minimum wage. Hey, if this concept worked, then why aren't we raising the minimum wage to $100 an hour so that all of us can be very well off? We don't becasue it doesn't work. why do liberals and Democrats like raising the minimimum wage? the reason is that it makes it easier for unions to ask for even higher wages in their negotialtions with management.

Raising the minimum wage just raises the floor. Everything will increase in price because of it. If Obama really wanted to help everyone he would cut taxes so companies could lower costs and make everything more affordable.

Good idea to the economically ignorant. Small businesses will be forced to cut jobs to supplement the increase. Also during the SOTU, Obama mentioned bringing back American companies to the US. How is he going to do that when Nike, Apple, and everyone else can outsource their manufacturing and pay less then 30% of $9? Not to mentions the outsourced costumer care reps in India.

The root of the problem is, and always has been, greed. Until the majority of people realize that, nothing will change. Raising the minimum wage won't change it. And I dislike coercion in all forms. The problem is greed. You cannot legislate your way out of it.