Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Dick Durbin of Illinois have met at a local burrito chain restaurant in Boston to discuss a state and federal minimum wage increase.
Warren was advocating Monday for a Massachusetts bill set to raise the minimum wage from $8 to $11 per hour by January 2016. The bill passed the Senate in November and is now in the House.
Durbin has partnered with Warren on pushing a pending federal bill to increase minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
The restaurant, Boloco, pays $9 an hour and has paid its workers above the minimum wage since it opened 16 years ago.
The senators say Americans who work full-time should not have to live paycheck-to-paycheck. But critics argue that raising the minimum wage would increase the unemployment rate.
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