Senate nixes minimum-wage increase

Reuters has reported that the U.S. Senate today defeated a proposal pushed by Democrats that would have given some of the lowest-paid hourly workers a wage boost for the first time in nearly a decade.

A majority of the Senate, 52 senators, voted in favor of incrementally raising the federal minimum wage—unchanged since 1997 —40 percent from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 by Jan. 1, 2009. But the measure needed 60 votes to win under a procedural agreement worked out earlier. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., unsuccessfully tried to attach the proposal to a defense authorization bill that is expected to be passed by the Senate in coming days.

Trying to rebut Republicans' arguments that raising the minimum wage would largely help teenagers working part-time jobs while being supported by their parents, Kennedy focused on teaching assistants, nursing home aides, and office building maintenance workers who work full-time at wages that earn them less than $11,000 annually, which is well below the poverty line. Republicans countered that raising the minimum wage would force small businesses to hire fewer workers.

The Senate also defeated a Republican-backed amendment to increase the minimum wage in two stages to $6.25. That measure also would have changed some work rules, which drew Democratic opposition.