Mitchell: New Bedford Workers Should Earn More than Minimum Wage
In his State of the City address last week, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell outlined many of his goals for the City in 2016, one of them being a pay raise for some City workers.
Mitchell says he wants the City to be able to provide it's lowest paid employees with a living wage. Speaking on his weekly radio program Mitchell says the raises wouldn't be lavish, but comparable to the work that's being done. "You've got people working long hours for the city, making 10 or 11 bucks an hour, and I think they need to get paid more. They're not going to get rich working for the City, no matter what. Nobody does," says Mitchell.
Mitchell says he'd like to see the earnings of base-level employees bumped up to $13 or $14/hr.
Mitchell says his office has crunched the numbers, and the raises would equate to about $150,000 per year in direct payouts.