The federal minimum wage, which had been frozen at $5.15 an hour since 1997 and had lost 20 percent of its value, will rise to $5.85 an hour on Tuesday. Minimum wage workers will get an additional 70-cent pay increase each summer for the next 2 years, ending in 2009 at $7.25 an hour.
"This is but a first step," said Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage, noting that Americans spent more than they earned last year for the first time since the Great Depression.
"American families are struggling to make ends meet. Health and education costs are exploding, and people are working longer hours just to keep their heads above water," said Borosage. "We need an economy that rewards work. Raising the minimum wage is an important first step to insuring that workers get a fair share of the profits and productivity that they help to generate."
Twenty states have a minimum wage at $5.15 that will increase to $5.85 due to the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade. The remaining 30 states have minimum wages above $5.85 and therefore will not be affected by the first of the three increases in the minimum wage scheduled over the next 2 years.
