James Cobb
James Cobb, the university’s B. Phinizy Spalding Professor of History Emeritus, was quoted on WABE about Georgia’s minimum wage.
The minimum pay in Georgia has remained $5.15 an hour by state law for more than 15 years. The wage doesn’t affect most workers since it’s below the federal minimum of $7.25, but keeping a low minimum wage on the books is not unusual in the South. A handful of Southern states don’t have minimum wage laws at all. The policies represent a longtime Southern strategy, according to Cobb.
“What it is symbolic of is a dedication to the interests of the employer over those of the worker,” Cobb said.
