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WASHINGTON, DC -- Representative George Miller (California), 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.
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