How About A Raise?

Our colleague Cynthia Bowers will be reporting on the debate over the minimum wage on tonight's Evening News. She has a preview. -- Ed.

(CBS/AP)

Once the election results were in, small business owners around the country knew they would probably soon be facing a hike in the federal minimum wage. $5.15 has been the law of the land for nearly a decade now and there is a great deal of pressure to increase that. One plan calls for a hike to $7.25 an hour.

In Illinois where minimum wage workers currently earn $6.25, Dan Costello, who runs his family's local pizza chain, isn't worried about the proposed hike itself--after all, most of his 500 employees already earn more than minimum wage. It's the signal giving his newest workers sends to his long time employees, who are already asking, "If the new guys get a raise, what about me?" He admits it's a fair question.

And a question that's not being talked about much on Capitol Hill. Tonight on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric we'll take a look the number of Americans that actually earn minimum wage and see what we can expect from the incoming Congress.

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