12.24.2006
Dems Eyeing $2 Raise for Minimum Earners (CNN.com)
POSTED: 6:09 p.m. EST, December 22, 2006
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Imagine what it would be like to work without a pay raise for nearly 10 years.
That's been the plight of some workers who for almost the past decade have been earning the federal minimum wage. Their last pay increase -- to $5.15 an hour -- came in 1997.
There could be some relief in sight.
When the Democrat-controlled 110th Congress convenes in early January, a top priority is boosting the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. The increase is likely to be phased in, perhaps over 26 months.
Alice Laguerre is among the millions of workers now earning less than $7.25 an hour.
She makes $6.55 an hour driving cars headed for the auction blocks in Orlando, Florida, and says a boost in the federal minimum wage would help her build a nest egg for emergencies.
"I would be able to save more," says Laguerre, a part-time worker. "I've always been thrifty with money. When I was young, I'd take a nickel and stretch it five ways."
That can be tough these days, acknowledges Laguerre, 53, after paying the monthly rent and utilities on her two-bedroom apartment and after recently buying a car -- a blue 1994 Buick Century.
(More ... CNN > Politics)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Imagine what it would be like to work without a pay raise for nearly 10 years.
That's been the plight of some workers who for almost the past decade have been earning the federal minimum wage. Their last pay increase -- to $5.15 an hour -- came in 1997.
There could be some relief in sight.
When the Democrat-controlled 110th Congress convenes in early January, a top priority is boosting the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. The increase is likely to be phased in, perhaps over 26 months.
Alice Laguerre is among the millions of workers now earning less than $7.25 an hour.
She makes $6.55 an hour driving cars headed for the auction blocks in Orlando, Florida, and says a boost in the federal minimum wage would help her build a nest egg for emergencies.
"I would be able to save more," says Laguerre, a part-time worker. "I've always been thrifty with money. When I was young, I'd take a nickel and stretch it five ways."
That can be tough these days, acknowledges Laguerre, 53, after paying the monthly rent and utilities on her two-bedroom apartment and after recently buying a car -- a blue 1994 Buick Century.
(More ... CNN > Politics)
Labels: CNN, Minimum Wage
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