President Barack Obama will travel to Connecticut next Wednesday as part of his campaign to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, a visit timed less than two weeks after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy offered a heated defense of the proposal at a press conference in Washington Monday.
The minimum wage event, scheduled for March 5, will be held in the Hartford area, according to a White House spokesman who said further details will be made available in coming days.
Malloy this year called on the General Assembly to pass a bill that would raise the state’s minimum hourly rate to $10.10, following the president’s lead after Obama in his 2014 State of the Union address askedCongress to implement the policy nationwide. The governor since has become an outspoken advocate for raising the level above $10 an hour.
The announcement of Obama’s visit comes just days after Malloy and Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal clashed over the topic at a National Governors’ Association press event held in Washington. After Jindal criticized Obama’s efforts to increase the federal minimum wage, Malloy jumped to the microphone and fired back, describing his fellow governor’s criticism of the president as, “the most insane statement I’ve heard.”