The Minimum We Should Do

Last month, I wrote about the urgency of the Democratic Party uniting behind an effort to raise the minimum wage, ensuring that – in Sherrod Brown's words – "a hard day's work means a fair day's pay."

The party is now once again pushing against the tide of a GOP Congress that is more interested in lining the pockets of its campaign contributors than – as Paul Krugman wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Monday – arriving at a "new New Deal" and working to "rebuild our middle class."

Sen. Edward Kennedy's amendment in the Senate and Rep. Steny Hoyer's legislation in the House would raise the wage from the current $5.15 an hour to $7.25 – the first raise in a decade.

And while we should aim for a higher living wage – as over 130 municipalities and cities have understood and enacted – the importance of addressing a federal minimum

cont'd...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15