It ends the longest span without a federal minimum wage increase since it was enacted in 1938. The previous increase came in September 1997, when a bill signed by President Bill Clinton raised the minimum 40 cents, to $5.15 an hour.The only way this bill was even passed was because the Democrats put it into the war funding bill otherwise these low wage earners would still be working for $5.15 per hour.
Legislation signed by President Bush in May increases the wage 70 cents each summer until 2009, when all minimum-wage jobs will pay no less than $7.25 an hour.
This is an improvement but with the rising cost of housing this does nothing to truly help the lowest earners in our society. What is needed is a region based living wage. No one that works a full time job should have to live in poverty in the richest nation on earth.
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