GOP Shoots Down Minimum Wage Increase (6/22/06)

For the ninth time since 1997, the Republican Congress has once again voted against a Democratic-proposed increase in the minimum wage. The minimum wage has not risen since 1997, when it increased from $4.75 and hour to $5.15, and the real value of the minimum wage continues to drop. If the minimum wage had just kept pace with inflation since 1968, minimum wage would be $8.88 an hour, instead of $5.15.

The vote was 52 to 46, largely along party lines. “Americans believe that no one who works hard for a living should have to live in poverty,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, who proposed the wage increase. “A job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it.”
Kennedy’s proposal would have increased the minimum wage to $5.85 within 60 days, and up to $7.25 two years after the enactment of the bill.