News-Record.com

Odds and ends, including audio, regarding the minimum wage bill:

• Click here for bill information, including text of the bill etc…
• Update 5/31, 8 p.m. Click here to link to North Carolinians for Fair Wages, a group pushing for the wage hike. (Thanks for the reminder Sorien.)
• Click here to link to NFIB, a group that opposes the minimum wage increase.
• This is my prior post on the topic, which includes a tally of how local (Guilford and surrounding area) folks voted on the bill.
• Other posts regarding the minimum wage here.

Now for the audio, from Thursday’s floor debate in the House:

• Alma’s initial speech on the bill: Click here.
• Rep. Joe Kiser, the Republican leader in the House, voices his opposition. Click here. “I’m not sure you’re doing a favor to these people in a lot of cases.”
• Rep. Bonner Stiller, a Brunswick County Republican, and Rep. Earl Jones, a Greensboro Democrat, go at it a bit. Click here.
• Debate over a proposed amendment that would have made the higher minimum wage apply only to people 21-years-old and older. There was quite a bit of push back and forth. Click here. “This amendment adds insult to injury for our young people trying to go and seek a higher education,” said Rep. Deborah Ross, a Wake County Democrat. Jones weighs in here as well, towards the end.
• The tail end of the debate. Don’t be afraid of the very pregnant pause at the beginning there, there was in fact dead silence for a few seconds. Click here.