By Matt Murphy
State House News Service
BOSTON — Attorney General Martha Coakley, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor, used a speech to business leaders Thursday to call for an immediate increase in the minimum wage.
Coakley, who addressed the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, said her parents were an example of a generation that believed that if they worked hard they could build a life and give their children the opportunity to succeed.
“Unfortunately for many parents and kids today, the hope of building that better life seems distant, and very hazy,” Coakley said.
The issue of income inequality has jumped to the forefront for Democrats running across the country, most recently helping to propel New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to victory last November as he talked about taxing the rich to pay for early education.
An increase in the state’s $8 wage floor appears likely this year given support for it among Beacon Hill Democrats and the possibility that a $10.50-per-hour minimum-wage proposal may appear as an initiative petition on the 2014 ballot. Within the Legislature and especially the House, lawmakers also hope to tackle business concerns with the unemployment-insurance system as part of the minimum-wage debate.
But Coakley said she believed the issue should be separated from still-percolating ideas to reform the unemployment-insurance system.