Minimum Wage Gets Second Boost After Decade of Roadblocks

The pay hike was the second step of the three-step minimum wage increase Congress passed last year, the first such increase since 1997. The third step, to $7.25 an hour, comes a year from today. For a decade, Republicans congressional leaders and the Bush administration blocked every effort to raise the $5.15 an hour rate for the nation’s lowest-paid workers. But new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate after the 2006 elections made passage possible. Today’s increase couldn’t come at more opportune time as families struggle with soaring gasoline and food prices and growing inflation. Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney: Raising inflation—especially in gas prices—continues to eat away at the value of the minimum wage and of all wages. Before the Fair Minimum Wage Act passed in May of 2007, the real value of the... [read full story]