Obama calls for increase in minimum wage

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STORY: U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday (October 11) made his case again for an increase in the national minimum wage, saying no American who works full-time should have to raise a family in poverty.

"Ask yourself, could you live on $14,500 a year?" Obama said in his weekly address to the American public. "That's what someone working full time on the minimum wage makes. If they're raising kids, that's below the poverty line," he said.

Obama proposed raising the national minimum to $9 per hour in his 2013 State of the Union address and now wants to raise the minimum wage to $10.10. But the idea has gained little traction among Republicans who control the House of Representatives.

"Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, or ten-ten, would benefit 28 million American workers," Obama said in his address. "And these aren't just high schoolers on their first job. The average worker who would benefit is 35 years ol