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Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell pushing minimum wage hike by region

Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) on Friday announced that she supports raising the minimum wage and changing the current system so the federal minimum wage is not the same nationwide.

Under her proposal, big cities like New York City and San Francisco would get a higher federal minimum wage compared to Sewell’s own constituents, reasoning that a dollar goes a lot further in rural Alabama.

“The wage floor must be raised, but it must be done it in a way that makes sense for each local economy,” she said in a statement, per WBRC. “A dollar in New York City does not go as far as a dollar in rural Alabama, and we need a minimum wage policy that accounts for these differences.”

According to this regionalized plan, minimum pay rates would increase for Alabama — from $7.25 an hour up to $9.80 an hour.

Rep. Sewell plans to join other D.C. lawmakers in introducing the regionalized minimum wage increase this fall. It is unlikely to pass.

This comes the week after Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin attended Netroots Nation, a gathering of “progressives,” and met up with socialist Democrat candidate for Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn

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