Workers in 30 states and the District of Columbia have been affected by the June 24 increase in the federal minimum wage from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, but the question of whether the increase will help or hurt the economy remains to be seen. “Families are relying on low minimum wages more than ever,” said Paul Sonn of the National Employment Law Project. “There is a widespread misconception that minimum-wage workers are largely comprised of teenagers working for spare change, but the demographic of minimum-wage workers is overwhelmingly adults.” U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in a statement that the wage increase will generate an extra $5.5 billion in consumer spending over the next year. The federal increase was the last step in a minimum-wage increase phased in over a three-year period.
Impact of Minimum Wage Uncertain
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In this episode of Inside the Vatican, Colleen Dulle and Gerard O’Connell discuss the 2025 Jubilee Year, beginning on Christmas Eve 2024 and ending in January 2026.
Pope Francis prayed that the Jubilee Year may become “a season of hope” and reconciliation in a world at war and suffering humanitarian crises as he opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve.
‘If God can visit us, even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger, we can truly say: Hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever!’
Inspired by his friend and mentor Henri Nouwen, Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, leader of Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S., invites listeners in his Christmas Eve homily to approach the manger with renewed awe and openness.