Poll finds support for minimum wage increase, paid leave

A majority of Americans, according to a new poll, support a trio of workplace proposals, including raising the minimum wage, requiring employers provide paid sick leave and having employers give paid time off work for new parents.

{mosads}Six in 10 Americans want a higher minimum wage, while one-fifth are opposed to such a plan, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll released Thursday.

Support among Republicans is weaker, with 40 percent favoring such a plan; 31 percent of Republicans are opposed, and 27 percent are neutral.

Sixty percent also favor requiring employers to offer paid sick leave, including about half of Republicans polled.

Two-thirds say employers should pay employees to take time off after childbirth, a position held by a majority of Republicans, 55 percent.

President Obama included all three proposal in his State of the Union address last month and mentioned them in his annual economic report to Congress, released Thursday.

“[W]e’re the only advanced country in the world that doesn’t guarantee workers either paid sick leave or paid maternity leave,” Obama wrote.

A majority of Americans, 56 percent, said they support a plan like Obama’s to offer two years of free community college tuition for those who maintain a certain grade point average and move along toward a degree. Only a third of Republicans favor such a plan.

The poll of 1,045 Americans was conducted Jan. 29 through Feb. 2 online with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.