Oct. 18, 2005—Although Congress repeatedly has rejected boosting the minimum wage since the last increase took place in 1997, members of Congress are about to give themselves their eighth pay raise since that time. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and other Democrats in Congress think that should change—and on Oct. 17, Kennedy offered legislation to increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour in three steps over 26 months.
The Kennedy proposal, an amendment to the Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill (H.R. 3058), would increase the minimum wage to $5.85 within 60 days, to $6.65 one year later and to $7.25 a year after that. The vote on Kennedy's minimum wage amendment could come as soon as Oct. 19, and likely will occur no later than Oct. 21.
With another pay raise for Congress included in the Transportation-Treasury spending bill, members of Congress automatically will receive another $3,100 raise in 2006 and if that happens, “the salaries of senators and representatives will have gone up by $31,600 since 1997 while minimum wage workers continue to earn only $10,700 a year,” says Kennedy.
“How can any of us look in the mirror each day and justify that?”
Full-Time Minimum Wage Earners Often Earn Less than the Poverty Rate
At the current minimum wage level, a full-time, year-round minimum wage worker in 2005 will earn only $10,712—$5,378 less than the $16,090 needed to lift a family of three out of poverty. A familiy's annual average health care premiums exceed annual pay at the minimum wage.
The nonprofit Economic Policy Institute reports some 7.3 million workers who earn between $5.15 an hour and $7.25 an hour would benefit directly from the increase, and 8.2 million more workers who earn slightly more than $7.25 an hour also would benefit from the spillover effect of an increase.
“To say ‘No’ to a minimum wage raise would be outrageous and shameful,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “It’s time for our nation to reward work and respect workers. It’s past time for a raise in our nation’s federal minimum wage.”
Many Republicans in Congress and the Bush administration have blocked minimum wage increases repeatedly in the past several years, most recently in March.
With the minimum wage frozen since 1997, 15 states and the District of Columbia have set minimum wage rates above the federal floor.
More
