Long-Awaited Minimum Wage Increase
July 24th, 2007 by KarinaWorking full time, a minimum wage worker brings home only $10,712 a year, nearly $6,000 below the poverty level for a family of three. Today, minimum wage workers will see the first federal pay increase in a decade. Raising the minimum wage means a $4,400 yearly pay raise—money that could pay for 15 months of groceries, or more than two years of health care. It could buy 19 months of utilities, 20 months of child care, or 30 months of college tuition at a public, 2-year college.
Over the next two years, the minimum wage will increase from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 per hour. Thanks to this increase, in 2009 a family of four will move from 11 percent below the poverty line to 5 percent above the poverty line. Nearly 13 million people will benefit from the increase. The minimum wage increase will have a direct positive impact for:
Women. Almost 60 percent of the 13 million workers who will benefit from a minimum wage increase are women.
Minorities. Forty percent of those who will benefit are people of color.
Families. Families with affected workers rely on those workers for more than half of their family’s income. 6.4 million children will see their parents’ income rise.
Military Families. 10% of military spouses earn between $5.15 and $7.25 per hour. 50,000 military families will benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour.
Speaker Pelosi had the opportunity this morning to talk with bloggers about the impact of the minimum wage increase. She explained, “It’s not enough, but it’s a great start. People who went to work yesterday and go to work today will make more money than they made yesterday…I would like to have a bigger increase in the minimum wage, like we do in San Francisco where I’m from, but this says that what we are about is putting forth a progressive economic agenda where many more people in our country participate in the prosperity of our country.”
Speaker Pelosi also participated in a rally this afternoon celebrating the increase in the minimum wage. Her remarks:
Thank you all very much.
Leader Reid, it seems like yesterday we were here urging the Senate to end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home. And here we are, one week later, gathered here to observe a remarkable thing. An increase in minimum wage shouldn’t be that remarkable, but it took 10 long years because of Republican obstructionism to block fairness for an increase in the minimum wage. Ten years. In fact, in the last Congress, the Republicans prevented consideration of the minimum wage coming to the House floor 11 times. Does that tell you whose side they are on?
This is a day that signals change. Because people who went to work this morning, who go to work every day to provide for their families today will have their work rewarded more fully. It’s not enough, but it’s a great start. And it’s part of a progressive agenda for economic growth in our country that talks about rewarding work, about educating our people.
Because of Congressman George Miller, the House passed the best tuition package for helping kids go to college since the GI Bill in 1944. They seem to go together, this commitment to the future. In the Senate, Senator Kennedy took the lead on the minimum wage; he’s taking the lead on the higher education package as well.
So it’s about jobs, it’s about education, it’s about SCHIP, it’s about having affordable health care for millions more of America’s children. It’s about affordable housing; it’s about honoring our promises to our veterans.
This is about the future, it’s about fairness, and it’s about having many more Americans participate in the economic success of our country, where our prosperity is shared because of a progressive economic agenda.
This is just the beginning.
In the coming months, we will expand cost-effective health coverage for millions of uninsured children; lower energy costs for all Americans, and create the next generation of good-paying American jobs by growing our renewable energy and technology sectors.
UPDATE: Watch a video of House Democratic Leaders and workers across the country on the minimum wage increase.