First Wage Increase in 10 Years for Minimum Wage Workers

Minimum wage workers received their first pay raise in a decade on July 24. After the House of Representatives voted on May 24 to approve legislation to increase the national minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour, President Bush signed the measure into law on May 25 as part of an emergency supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 2206). The first phase of the law went into effect on July 24, when the minimum wage increased to $5.85 an hour.

The Fair Minimum Wage Act, which passed the House by 315-116 on January 10, 2007, gives a much needed pay raise to up to 13 million of America's lowest-paid workers.

Introduced by Representative George Miller, the bill increases the minimum wage by $2.10 over two years -- from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. The bill also extend the minimum wage to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean where Jack Abramoff and former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay undermined efforts to provide basic labor standards, and to American Samoa. Minimum wage increases will be phased in under a different schedule for these territories, given that they are at a different level of economic development than the mainland.

How the Fair Minimum Wage Act Will Work:

• 60 days after enactment (July 24, 2007): The minimum wage will increase from the current $5.15 to $5.85
• One year after the first increase (July 24, 2008): The minimum wage will increase to $6.55
• One year after the second increase (July 24, 2009): The minimum wage will finally increase to $7.25