Mimimum wage rises 70 cents July 24 2007The nation’s lowest-paid workers will soon find extra money in their pockets as the minimum wage rises 70 cents on July 24, 2007. The $5.85 per hour wage, in effect for over a decade, will now increase to $7.25 by the year 2009. Legislation signed by President Bush in May increases the wage 70 cents each summer until 2009, when all minimum-wage jobs will pay no less than $7.25 an hour.
Government figures show about 1.7 million people earned $5.15 or less in 2006. The increase is one of the few major legislative successes of the Democratic-controlled Congress. Lawmakers added the increase to the $120 billion Iraq war spending bill, which Bush initially vetoed because the Democrats insisted on a troop pullout date. Bush signed the bill May 25 after the Democrats removed their pullout provision. To help make the minimum wage provision palatable to Republicans, Democrats added $4.8 billion in tax breaks for small businesses to help them hire new workers and offset any costs associated with an increase in the minimum wage. Democratic presidential candidates are making further minimum wage increases an issue in their primary campaigns. More than two dozen states and the District of Columbia already have minimum wages higher than the federal level. This increase will eventually effect food and gas prices where it will not benefit people as they think. Some restaurants like McAliter’s previously paid employees more the minimum wage; but, now they will be hiring them at the new minimum wage said Mansell. Employers who pay many of these low-wage workers say increasing the minimum wage only means they have to raise the prices of the products, cut back on employees’ hours or let some workers go |
