The States Who Are Now Going To Require Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients

A new year brings, new laws. Many states have passed  new legislation beginning in the year 2015, welfare recipients will be required to pass a drug test if they are to continue to receive their benefits.

Welfare recipients are going to be asked to comply with the new drug testing laws. The laws vary from state to state, Some states will require new recipients to pass a drug test.  In other states who passed the legislation, welfare recipients will only need to pass a drug test if suspected of drug abuse, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah now require welfare recipients to pass a drug test according to their state legislation.

States that have already passed this law house found the program costs more money than it saves. As  As MT's Michael Jackman found earlier, Tennessee who has already passed the law has found that less than 1% welfare recipients use illicit drugs. Utah spent $30,000 on drug testing welfare recipients and found that only 12 recipients failed a drug test.

Many states are already facing a crisis in their budget and drug testing welfare recipients is going to cost more money than it will save when the money can be spent on other programs where funding has been decreased or cut all together. 

Dozens of States to See a Minimum Wage Increase in the Year 2015

It is going to be a happier New Year for 3.1 million U.S. minimum wage workers who are going to see a increase in wages in 2015.

Minimum wage workers in Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Nebraska, Ohio, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island will see in increase in their up coming paychecks for the new Year.

Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and Washington will see a cost-of-living raise that will be mandated in their state laws.

Massachusetts minimum wage workers are seeing the first minimum wage increase since 2008 from $8.00 to $9.00 a year and will see a gradual increase in wages until they meet the minimum of $11.00 an hour by the year 2017.

The state of New York raised it's minimum wage to $8.75, beginning December 31, 2014 and are expecting to see an increase to $9.00 by December 31, 2015.

Washington will raise it's minimum wage to $9.47 and hour. The highest increase is for those minimum wage workers in the District of Columbia, they will see a increase to $10.50 a hour July 1st.

Those workers in the states of Delaware and Minnesota won't see their pay raise until June and August.

Alaska's voters passed the initiative to raise minimum wage, but not until 90 days after the election January 1st, the results won't be certified until February 24th.

As the cost of living has been rising year after year, minimum wage workers has not seen a federal minimum wage increase since 2007. Many states have seen an increase in the minimum wage in the year 2015. However, a federal wage increase is going to be a key issue in the 2015 elections.


Click on the link below to find your states minimum wage schedule.
Guide to Minimum Wage Increases on the State Level