The mayor of New London plans to sign an ordinance into law today to make minimum wage for municipal employees and contractors $10.10.
“I will be proud to sign this ordinance into law,” Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said. “I hope other municipalities and employers will follow New London’s example, because no one working full time should be forced to live in poverty.”
During the State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama announced an executive order for federal contractors to pay employees at least $10.10 an hour. He also urged mayors, governors and state legislators to raise wages as well and the mayor said he was inspired by that call.
“President Obama issued a call to action,” Finizio said. “I am proud that today New London becomes the first city in our state to answer that call.”
Mayor Finizio will sign the ordinance at 1 p.m. in the mayor’s office and said this is the first ordinance in the state to enact the $10.10 wage.
He is signing it the day before the president comes to Connecticut to push his $10.10 minimum wage plan.
It also comes on the same day Quinnipiac University released a poll saying Connecticut voters support raising the state's minimum wage.
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Of those who participated in the poll, 42 percent want to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.
New London’s City Council passed the ordinance on Monday night with a vote of 6 to 1 vote.
“Some of the hardest working people in America work at low-paying jobs, and they deserve the dignity of a fair wage,” Council President Wade Hyslop said in a statement.
