Momentum Builds for Minimum Wage Increase

by James Parks, Apr 7, 2006

With congressional Republicans and the Bush administration refusing to raise the $5.15-an-hour federal minimum wage for nine years, grassroots activists across the nation are pushing for ballot initiatives or legislation to boost minimum wages in individual states.

In Pennsylvania, they made a big step April 5 when the state House of Representatives passed a bill that would increase the minimum wage by $2 an hour over the next 15 months. The bill, which now goes to the Republican-controlled state Senate, would raise the minimum wage to $6.25 this year and to $7.15 in July 2007.

The drive to gain an increase in the federal minimum wage also received a big boost April 6 when hundreds of activists rallied on Capitol Hill in support of the Fair Minimum Wage Act sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D-Mass.).

Kennedy has joined with former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards to find citizen co-sponsors for the bill, which would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over two years. To date, more than 90,000 people have signed up to support the bill. To sign up as a citizen co-sponsor, click here.

Grassroots activists have launched campaigns to raise the minimum wage in 20 states. And those campaigns are succeeding. Low-wage workers in two states won major victories recently in their battles to gain a fair wage to support their families. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) signed into law April 4 a minimum wage increase to $7.25 an hour over the next two years. A week earlier, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) signed legislation to boost the current state minimum wage of $5.15 to $6.95 an hour in October, followed by a raise to $7.15 in July 2007 and to $7.40 a year later.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have set their minimum wage at a fairer, more-realistic level than the federal government. The federal minimum wage does not keep a family of four out of poverty.

In fact, the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage is 26 percent lower today than it was in 1979; in real dollars, $5.15  is worth just $4.42 today. If the minimum wage had just kept pace with inflation since 1968, when it was a $1.60 an hour, the minimum wage would have been $8.88 in 2005.

Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President William George praised union activists for fighting for the principle of a fair pay:

In the fight to increase the minimum wage for Pennsylvania workers, union members have helped immensely to push this increase forward by joining together and sending a clear message to the Pennsylvania General Assembly that $5.15 an hour is not an acceptable wage for any Pennsylvania worker.

George noted that since Congress last increased the nation’s minimum wage, the price of food increased by 21 percent, rent by 28 percent, child care and preschool cost by 48 percent and gasoline by 81 percent. The cost of natural gas has more than doubled.

Find out what the minimum wage is in your state and check out the AFL-CIO Minimum Wage Calculator to see how your family would get by on minimum-wage earnings.

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