With no Congressional action on raising the minimum wage since 1997, inflation has eroded wages. The minimum wage in the 21st century is $2 lower in real dollars than it was four decades ago and now stands at its lowest level since 1955…
…the national minimum wage of $5.15 is not enough for a family to live above the poverty line. The annual salary for workers earning the national minimum wage still leaves a family of three about $6,000 short of the poverty threshold.
…the House of Representatives last week voted to give members of Congress yet another pay raise, as it has done almost every year for nearly a decade.
CNN’s Lou Dobbs continues,
“For some reason, our elected officials decided against holding a news conference. Maybe that’s because they didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that they raise their own salaries almost every year while refusing to raise the pay of our lowest-paid workers.“This administration, our Republican-led Congress and the dominant corporate interests in this country want cheap labor. And to achieve that goal they’re outsourcing middle-class jobs, importing illegal labor and cutting retirement and health-care benefits.