© REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueConnecticut Governor Dannel Malloy (R) offers a rebuttal regarding remarks made by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal following a National Governors Association event hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington February 24, 2014
Connecticut raised its minimum wage $10.10 an hour from the previous $ 8.70 an hour over the next three years, surpassing Washington as the highest in the country,
reports Reuters.
President Obama and congressional Democrats want to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
Connecticut Gov Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, signed the legislation in New Britain, Conn. Thursday evening. Malloy made the bill a law at the same diner Café Beauregard - where he had met with the president earlier this month to discuss hiking the minimum wage.
New Britain only has a household median income of $35,000,
compared with the statewide median of $66,000.
Malloy believes this move will revitalize the economic health of the city.
"This is just a step in moving people in the right direction," Malloy
said while signing the bill. "We will be lifting people out of poverty in the state of Connecticut. Increasing the minimum wage is not just good for workers, it's also good for business," he added.
The owner of Café Beauregard, Rob Chiovoloni, agrees.
"Restaurants have to absorb costs all the time," Chiovoloni told The Daily Caller News Foundation, adding, "the legislation is not going to impact us at all because we are already paying all of our employees above ten dollars an hour."