Federal minimum wage rises to $6.55 today

[L. Coyote]

Federal minimum wage rises to $6.55 today
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Business Writer Thu Jul 24 - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080724/ap_on_bi_ge/minimum_wage


WASHINGTON - About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices are swallowing it up, and some small businesses will pass the cost of the wage hike to consumers.

The increase, from $5.85 to $6.55 per hour, is the second of three annual increases required by a 2007 law. Next year's boost will bring the federal minimum to $7.25 an hour.

Workers like Walter Jasper, who earns minimum wage at a car wash in Nashville, Tenn., are happy to take the raise, but will still struggle with the higher gas and food prices hammering Americans.

"It will help out a little," said Jasper, who with his fiancee support a family of seven .....

[niyad]

1. 0h wow--according to something I heard a couple of weeks ago, it should be at least ten an hour

and even that is "small beer"/

how much is the ceo of halliburton making?

[L. Coyote]

2. The first inititive petition to raise the minimum wage to $5 was in Oregon in 1988

Oregon did raise the minimum wage to $4.75 via legislation in 1989, and subsequently several times by initiative since.

While Oregon's iniiative was an historical first, it did not muster enough signatures to make the ballot. It did spawn more initiative drives to raise the minimum wage, and WA raised theirs in 1988, the first historically to both make the ballot and succeed at the polls.

How much have prices risen since those historic times????? Gasoline was $1.47 in 2001......