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Minimum Wage Boost Makes Baby Steps in Senate |
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Raising the minimum wage could have been simple. Instead, some 13 million low-paid workers are still waiting for a raise while the Senate fiddles.
On Jan.10, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a minimum wage bill that for the first time in more than a decade would have boosted the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25.
It was straight forward, no-strings-attached legislation—no billion dollar tax giveaways to business or attacks on the nation’s fundamental wage and hour laws that marred previous attempts to raise the minimum wage in the decade-plus that Republicans controlled Congress.
So here we are, nearly three months later and not much further down the road (in the meantime, three states raised their minimum wage rates, bringing to 31 the states with higher than $5.15 minimum wage levels).
On Jan. 24, using Senate rules to force minimum wage backers to win 60 votes instead of a simple 51 majority, the Senate Republican minority killed the clean minimum wage bill. Then they filibustered the bill for a week until Senate Democrats, hoping to move it to conference with the House version, agreed to include $8.3 billion in business tax breaks as part of the package. Republicans refused to let the bill go to conference fearing their tax giveaways wouldn’t survive.
Once again, the needs of low-wage workers finish a distance second to millions of dollars in tax breaks for corporate interests.
There may have been a small step forward last week. Before leaving town for a two-week spring vacation, the Senate passed a supplemental spending bill for the war in Iraq that includes the $2.10 raise in the minimum wage. But the trade off for that $2.10 is more than $12 billion in tax breaks for business. That’s right, they tacked on another $3.9 billion in tax giveaways.
Minimum wage supporters hope the action might jump-start House and Senate negotiations on the tax break part of the minimum wage bill. The House has offered $1.3 billion in targeted tax breaks but that leaves a $10 billion gap to overcome.
In addition, President Bush will veto the overall bill because it calls for the beginning of a troop withdrawal from Iraq. That means a new minimum wage bill must be drafted and passed by both houses. The question is, how soon?
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The Democrats should stand firm on a CLEAN bill without tax breaks concessions. It should not be part of any omnibus type bill. The tide is now finally starting to turn against this arrogant and contemptible administration. Let President Bush veto this important moral bill & let us plan for an overide.
The battle to raise the minimum wage in New York was equally long & hard. Then Governor Pataki vetoed it after a long struggle for passage in both houses. The Working Families Party, Unions as well as churches & other groups advocating for low income workers came together in escalating the pressure on legislators AND the veto was overidden. It was a great victory!
We need such victories for labor & working families more than ever. They should not be diminished by tax tradeoffs to business and the wealthy who have already enjoyed the largest tax cuts in United States history under the present regime.
As always, we should stand firm on principle.