Sen. Kennedy & Rep. Miller propose increased/extended minimum wage.

http://tedkennedy.com/journal/79/an-increase-in-the-minimum-wage

Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005

While the debate over the nucelar option and extreme judicial nominees goes on, Senator Kennedy is taking the lead on a number of other issues that directly affect the American people. One of the most important is an increase in the minimum wage, an issue that the Senator has championed for years. He’s offering the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005 to directly improve the lives of 7.3 million Americans. I’ve included some info on the legislation below and the minimum wage in general below. Rep. George Miller of California is taking the lead on this in the House, and Jesse over at the DCCC’s Stakeholder has more good info on this -

· The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005 would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in three steps:

· $5.85 60 days after enactment;
· $6.55 one year later;
· $7.25 one year after that

· The number of Americans in poverty has increased by 4.3 million since President Bush took office. Nearly 36 million people live in poverty, including 13 million children. Among full-time, year-round workers poverty has doubled since the late 1970s—from about 1.3 million then to more than 2.6 million. An unacceptably low minimum wage is a key part of the problem.

· The last time Congress voted to raise the minimum wage was in 1996. That increase raised it from $4.25 to $4.75 in 1996, and then in 1997 to its current $5.15 an hour.

· Three times in the last Congress the Republican leadership brought down a bill rather than let us have an up or down vote on the minimum wage – first on the State Department Bill, then on the Welfare Bill, and finally on the Class Action Bill.

· Minimum wage employees working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, earn $10,700 a year, $5,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Since the last increase in 1997, the value has eroded by more than 15 percent.

· Today, the real value of the minimum wage is more than $3.50 below what it was in 1968. To have the purchasing power it had in 1968, the minimum wage would have to be $8.70 an hour today, not $5.15.

· Nearly seven and a half million workers will directly benefit from the minimum wage increase. More than eight million more will benefit indirectly. That’s fifteen and a half million workers who will get a raise.

· A new report from the Children’s Defense Fund shows that a single parent working full-time at the current minimum wage earns enough to cover only 40 percent of the cost of raising two children. 9.7 million children live in households which would benefit from the increase.

· And a new report from the Center for Economic Policy Research shows that half of minimum wage earners are between ages 25 and 54, and a third of them will still be stuck earning the minimum wage three years later. Only 40 percent of earners had moved out of the low-wage workforce three years later.

· Raising the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour will mean an additional $4,370 a year to help minimum wage earners support their families. That’s enough for a minimum wage family to buy

o Almost two years of child care
o Full tuition for a community college degree
o A year and a half of heat and electricity
o More than a year of groceries
o More than 9 months of rent

· In the past eight years, Members of Congress will have raised their own pay seven times—by $28,500. In those same eight years minimum wage workers have not gotten a single raise—they continue to earn $10,700 a year.

· The current minimum wage fails to provide enough income to enable minimum wage workers to afford adequate housing in any area of this country.

· History clearly shows that raising the minimum wage has not had any negative impact on jobs, employment, or inflation. In the four years after the last minimum wage increase passed, the economy experienced its strongest growth in over three decades. More than 11 million new jobs were added, at a pace of 232,000 per month. There were ten million new service industry jobs, including more than one and a half million retail jobs, of which nearly 600,000 were restaurant jobs.

· A fair increase is long overdue. Congress should act as quickly as possible to pass a minimum wage increase that reflects the losses suffered as the result of our shameful inaction in the past. No one who works for a living should have to live in poverty.

http://blog.dccc.org/mt/archives/002810.html

MILLER CALLS FOR MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE

Bill Would Extend Minimum Wage to Northern Mariana Islands

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. George Miller (Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, announced legislation today to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over two years. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduced the legislation in the Senate. Also today, two nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations released reports showing the importance of raising the minimum wage for adult workers, children, and families.

"American workers are long overdue for a raise," said Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. "Real wages are actually declining for the first time in more than a decade, while prices for healthcare, gasoline, and other necessities are rising, making it even more urgent that we raise the minimum wage now. The minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 per hour since 1997 - $5.15 per hour. These days, a gallon of milk can cost half that much in some parts of the country. Imagine working for the better part of an hour and only being able to afford a gallon of milk - how do you ever make ends meet? The answer is: you don't."

One of the reports issued today, from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, shows that most minimum wage workers make significant contributions to their total family income. Half of them are between the ages of 25 and 54. Many workers find themselves trapped in minimum wage jobs; more than one-third of 25- to 54-year-old workers in minimum wage jobs are still earning the minimum wage after three years.

The other report, from the Children's Defense Fund, shows that the annual income of a single parent working full-time at minimum wage covers only 40 percent of the estimated cost of raising two children, down from 48 percent in 1997. At $7.25 per hour, the minimum wage would cover 56 percent of the costs of raising two children, a significant improvement for working families.

"Every American deserves a decent wage for the work they do, and most Americans agree that we should raise the minimum wage. Congress disrespects workers and violates the will of the people when it refuses to increase the minimum wage," said Miller. "We ought to respect workers by guaranteeing them a fair wage. Work should be the path out of poverty, but millions of Americans work full-time and still live in poverty."

The Miller-Kennedy legislation would also extend the minimum wage to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean.

"Recent revelations have shown how some combination of lobbying by Jack Abramoff and actions by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay's office undermined efforts to provide basic labor standards to workers in the Marianas," said Miller. "This bill would begin to undo the significant harm that such actions have done to workers in the Marianas."

Among the 7.5 million workers earning between $5.15 and $8 an hour - the people this bill is intended to help - 84 percent of them are adults over the age of 20. Nearly half of them are married or have children. Over half of them are women; 59 percent are white; 13 percent are black; and 23 percent are Hispanic. Sixty percent of them work full-time.

The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage has declined 20 percent since 1997. The Miller-Kennedy legislation, called the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005, would increase the wage from $5.15 to $5.85 within 60 days; then to $6.55 one year after the first increase; and finally to $7.25 one year after that.

At $5.15 per hour, a worker who works 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year earns $10,712. In 2003, the poverty level for a family of two (a parent and a child) was $12,682.

Cosponsors in the House continue to sign Miller's legislation. It has 100 cosponsors so far.