Editorial: Leaving the poor behind

Thursday, June 22, 2006 | 7:12 a.m.

Although members of Congress receive comfortable cost-of-living increases every year, Senate Republican leaders refused on Wednesday, for the ninth year in a row, to allow even a Spartan increase for the country's poorest workers.

Republican leaders in the House were equally oblivious to the needs of the country's working poor last week in rebuffing the Appropriations Committee, which had approved a three-step increase supported by Democrats.

In both the Senate and House, Democrats had proposed a three-step raise in the minimum wage, so that workers now receiving $5.15 an hour would be receiving $7.25 an hour by Jan. 1, 2009.

At a time when an hour's labor at minimum wage won't even buy two gallons of gasoline, it is appalling that a modest increase would be shot down by Republicans who are more influenced by business lobbyists than they are by their own constituents. Polls show that most Americans support raising the minimum wage.

Republicans mimic the argument of business groups that say raising the minimum wage would result in fewer jobs for low-skilled workers. A Wall Street Journal article on Tuesday, however, reported that "hiring was strong across the board" after minimum-wage increases in the 1990s. The article also pointed out that those increases were credited with "helping to boost the fortunes of low-paid workers."

The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, says the minimum wage has lost 25 percent of its value to inflation since the last increase in September 1997.

At the general election in 2004, Nevada voters approved amending the state Constitution to address the minimum-wage issue. The amendment, if passed again in November, would provide an immediate $1 increase in the minimum wage and annual cost-of-living increases after that of up to 3 percent.

It's a shame that voters must take into their own hands a responsibility being shunned by their Republican representatives.