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Senate Rejects Minimum Wage Hike March 10, 2005 Workers earning the minimum wage will have to continue their eight-year-wait for an increase. A divided Senate on Monday rejected two attempts to raise the $5.15 wage – one a genuine attempt to provide a substantial increase and the other a thinly veiled giveaway to business."A substantial minimum wage increase is long overdue and the Senate should give workers the support they need to avoid falling into poverty," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "It’s time Congress took meaningful action to increase the minimum wage and reject efforts by big business to deny workers fair wages and protections." More than 7 million Americans work for minimum wage; and an increase would reduce poverty and the incidence of bankruptcy. But the amendment offered by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) would have increased the wage floor by only $1.10, and would have eliminated overtime pay for many workers and awarded small businesses $4 billion in tax breaks. The Santorum amendment lost by a vote of 38-61. An alternative sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) would have increased the minimum wage by 41 percent over two years, to $7.25. The business lobby came out strongly against it. In the end, 46 Senators voted in favor the bill to 49 opposed. Kennedy chastised his colleagues for giving themselves regular raises, but ignoring the lowest-paid Americans. "The height of hypocrisy will be this afternoon, when those individuals in this Senate say no to a minimum wage increase of $7.25 an hour when this institution voted themselves a $28,500 pay increase over the last five years," he said on the Senate floor before the vote. "The minimum wage has been flat all these years but not for the members of Congress."
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Fewer Jobs, Not Much Growth In Bush Tax CutsBush Jobs Record Claims Unwelcome LegacyIndustrial Union Council Ohio Job Report Refutes Bush ClaimsAFL-CIO RELEASES WISCONSIN JOB EXPORT REPORTFour More Years Good for Employers; Bad for OrganizingAFL-CIO's America@Work Magazine, Sept./Oct. 2004 |
