Holding the Line...

This week, the Senate rejected an attempt to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25/hr (or $15,000 a year). Interestingly, the base pay for a congressman is now $164,000, or four times the average US household income. Congress has raised its own pay eight times since 1997. In that same period, the buying power of the unchanged minimum wage has declined over 20%. Asked to explain his vote against a measure to help workers on the lowest rung of the economic ladder one Senator stated that he felt raising the minimum wage would be dangerous for American workers: "Nothing spurs initiative and builds the work ethic like working forty hours a week and still being dirt poor." Other members of Congress cited their cowardice and depraved morality as their reason for voting down the measure.