Join the "Healthcare NOT Warfare" campaign!
PDA 2006 Election Video
» 56K modem
» broadband
Stop Funding War Video
» All
formats
Click here for the Congressional Schedule
![[Improve and Expand Medicare! Send your FREE Fax!]](http://www.1payer.net/ads/1payerfaxad.jpg)
June 22, 2006--Progressive Democrats of America Executive Director Tim Carpenter made the following statement today on the failure of Senate Republicans to approve a minimum wage increase.
"The Republican leadership is completely out of touch with the reality facing today's workers," Carpenter says. "The majority of Americans and now a majority in Congress understand that a minimum wage increase is long overdue.
"The current minimum wage level is a tremendous injustice. Hard-working Americans cannot earn enough money to feed their families. The divide between rich and poor grows and grows. Even after Hurricane Katrina tragedy that exposed the hardships of poverty in America there still isn't enough political will on the part of Republicans in Washington to give hard-working, low-wage workers some relief."
In a procedural vote, senators voted 51-47 in favor of raising the minimum wage to $7.25 in three steps, but fell short of the 60 votes needed to move the legislation forward.
The minimum wage is currently $5.15 an hour and has not been increased since 1997. In the nine years since the last minimum wage increase, Congress has awarded itself pay increases seven times.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average CEO in the United States earned 262 times the pay of the average worker, earning more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks.
PDA National News RSS Feed