Not Much Jingle in the Pockets of Minimum Wage Workers this Holiday

[Omaha Steve]

Not Much Jingle in the Pockets of Minimum Wage Workers this Holiday

by Mike Hall, Dec 5, 2006

When the holiday shopping season rolled around in 1997, $5.15 an hour didn’t stretch very far, but at least minimum wage workers had a little extra money in their pockets from the September raise that year that boosted the minimum wage to the new $5.15 level.

Today, a little more than nine years and three months later and with another holiday shopping season in full swing, that $5.15 an hour buys far, far less. Not only is the minimum wage at its lowest buying power since 1955, it has remained unchanged for the longest period since its creation in 1938.

This past weekend, Dec. 2 marked the record-breaking milestone of congressional inaction on the minimum wage. In 1996, Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed legislation increasing the minimum wage from $4.25 an hour to $5.15 in two steps, with the last boost taking effect in September 1997.

Since then, with Republicans in almost exclusive control of Congress, every attempt by Democrats to raise the pay of the nation’s lowest-paid workers has been blocked, and the Bush administration has gone along with Republican roadblocks, trickery and maneuvering to thwart a vote on raising the minimum wage.


FULL story at link.

[KoKo]

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