INTRODUCED: 03.03.05 [Senate]; SPONSOR: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy [D-MA]
FAILED, NOT AMENDED TO S 256: 03.07.05 [Yea-46, Nay-49]

The Legislation:
The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005 would have raised the federal minimum wage from its current level of $5.15 an hour to $5.85 an hour 60 days after the enactment of the bill. A year later, the federal minimum would increase to $6.55 an hour, and two years later, it would increase to $7.25 an hour.

The middle-class position:
The Middle Class Supports: At less than $11,000 a year for a full-time worker, the federal minimum wage is a poverty wage. It is a rate at which it is impossible for working Americans to independently pay their rent, feed their families or get needed medical care?much less save for the types of investments that make it possible to work one?s way into the middle class, such as an education, a first home or the chance to start a business. A higher minimum wage both alleviates poverty and stimulates the economy, putting more money into the hands of consumers who will spend it, supporting local businesses. Contrary to the stereotype of the minimum wage worker as a teenager with nothing to purchase but junk food and movie tickets, the typical minimum wage worker is an adult providing more than half of his or her family?s total earnings. According to the Economic Policy Institute, half of families with a minimum-wage worker rely on his or her pay as the family?s only source of earnings. As seventeen states have raised their minimum wages above the federal rate, economists have also had more opportunities to study the effects of minimum-wage increases, concluding that raising the minimum-wage does not lead to the loss of jobs. In fact, the number of small businesses grew nearly twice as fast in states with a minimum wage higher than the Federal level than it did in states without a higher minimum, according to one study.

from the experts:
“[The current minimum wage is] not realistic… There's not anything that any of us purchases that costs the same or less today than it did in 1997, anybody can see that… I wish that it would be addressed on the federal level.”

—Governor Mike Huckabee, Republican, Arkansas, discussing his state's legislation to raise the minimum wage (April 10, 2006)

—Jared Bernstein, Economist, Economic Policy Institute (April 29, 2004)

—The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church; The Reverend Dr. Stan Hastey, Executive Director, The Alliance of Baptists; The Reverend Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick Stated Clerk, The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Bishop Roy Riley, Chair, The Evangelical Lutheran Church Conference of Bishops; and thirty other U.S. religious leaders (November 7, 2005)

Next Steps for 2006:
As one out of three U.S. states has already taken the initiative to exceed the federal minimum wage and the economic evidence continues to mount that increased minimums boost the nation's lowest paid workers without causing a loss of jobs, it's long past time for the federal government to catch up. Legislators who want to improve opportunities for the nation's poor and near poor to work their way into the middle class should act immediately to raise the minimum wage.