Workers Deserve A Wage Increase Instead Of Partisan Games

August 7, 2006, The U.S. Capitol isn’t a place where you would expect to find a scene from “Let’s Make a Deal,” but that’s exactly what happened when congressional leadership decided to play political games rather than hold a clean vote to increase the minimum wage.

In a cynical move, House leadership brought the issue up for a vote by packaging it with other measures that they knew were doomed to fail. While the House ultimately approved the bill, it failed in the Senate, as was expected. As a result, 6.6 million Americans making minimum wage will continue to work for $5.15 an hour, an amount that hasn’t changed since 1997.

More than 70 percent of minimum wage workers are adults over the age of 20. Parents with children under the age of 18 account for 1.6 million workers who earn minimum wage, and 614,000 of them are single parents. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 153,000 Tennessee workers would benefit from a minimum wage increase.

It simply doesn’t make sense to expect these workers to support themselves and their children on $10,700 per year. If they were to work full-time all year to make that amount, they would still live in poverty.

Raising the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour would create an additional $4,400 for a family of three. That increase would pay for 15 months of groceries, more than two years of health care or two years of tuition at the average public two-year college.

When adjusted for inflation, the current minimum wage is at its lowest level in 50 years. While the minimum wage has not increased in nine years, the cost for everyday items has risen dramatically. Since 1997, gas prices have more than doubled, health insurance costs are nearly twice as high, and college costs have increased by 77 percent.

The average CEO now earns 821 times more than a minimum wage worker. To put it another way, the average CEO earns more before lunchtime than a minimum wage worker earns all year.

Do Americans deserve fair pay for an honest day’s work? I believe they do.

The issue of raising the minimum wage is strong enough to stand alone on its own merits. That’s why I have signed a petition to force a debate and vote on a standalone minimum wage bill that would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour over two years. I will continue fighting to raise the minimum wage and help working families in Tennessee.

It’s time to stop the political games. It’s time for a clean vote on the minimum wage. It’s time for 6.6 million Americans to receive more than a tank of gas for a full day’s work.