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In a major speech on the economy Wednesday, President Obama declared that it is “time for the minimum wage to go up.” While more people are employed as the country continues to climb out of a deep recession, many full-time workers making the minimum wage are still living in poverty. On All In Wednesday evening, Chris Hayes explained that the minimum wage hasn’t kept up with inflation or productivity.”You want to start attacking inequality and plutocracy and post-recession wage stagnation,” said msnbc’s Hayes, “then raise the wage.”Chris Hayes spoke with Shenita Simon-Toussaint, a shift supervisor at a Brooklyn Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, about the challenges she faces supporting her family on her salary of $8 an hour.”With rent, with feeding kids, you know somebody’s got to go hungry and sometimes it’s the parents,” Simon-Toussaint explained. “We shouldn’t have to do that. We’re two married [people] that work, have 3 children, we live with my mom. We shouldn’t have to do that. We’re both employed.”Watch the video above for Chris Hayes’ conversation on the minimum wage with Shenita Simon-Toussaint.
Rachel Simon
Rachel Simon is a writer and editor based in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of “Pickleball for All: Everything but the ‘Kitchen’ Sink.” Her work has been published in The New York Times, Glamour, Vulture, Teen Vogue and more. You can find her at @rsimon113. Recommended
