In his two thousand fourteen State of the Union address, President Obama announced to raise the minimum wage to ten dollars and ten cents per hour.
Small business owner Jim Bergan of Oak Forest Landscape gives Obama’s plan a different meaning.
“Obama’s plan is packaged and sold as a way to help small businesses around the country be able to compete for government contracts compete for RFPs request for proposals,” Bergan said.
Louisiana’s less than twenty minimum wages are four dollars and twenty-five cents with its student minimum wage being six dollars and sixteen cents per hour.
Nineteen states already exceed the federal level scale of minimum wages including Washington D.C.  
Louisiana’s poverty rate is 32.5 percent, which is the sixth highest among the 50 states.
Student Keith LeBlanc is beginning his steps to starting his small business in the coming year.
“So small businesses that are struggling as it is right now to pay their employees and sometimes all they can afford is minimum wage because they’re still small,” LeBlanc said.
The plan would take place by the year 2015 to improve the cost of wealth of lower-paid workers. Obama’s plan is to move Americans away from the poverty line. 

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Gabriela Chauvin

For small businesses, money could be scarce if the minimum wage increases $7.25 an hour.