President Obama to Raise Minimum Wage for Contractors to $10.10

President Barack Obama will raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for federal contractors hired in the future, an initiative to be unveiled tonight in his State of the Union address.

Obama will issue an Executive Order for the contract workers -- including janitors and construction workers -- and repeat his call to reluctant lawmakers to increase the minimum wage for all employed Americans.

Federal contract workers are paid $7.25 an hour, the rate for private-sector employers, White House spokesman Bobby Whithorne said today in an e-mail. He said he didn’t have a cost estimate for increasing the minimum by 39 percent.

“We believe that this action will produce good value for the federal government,” Whithorne said. “Higher wages will attract higher-quality workers who are more productive, reduce turnover, which can significantly offset the cost of providing higher wages.”