No love from the GOP when it comes to increasing the minimum wage.

The Republican-controlled Senate refused today to raise the minimum wage, rejecting an election-year proposal from Democrats for the first increase in nearly a decade.

It has been almost 10 years since the last minimum wage increase. The federal minimum wage continues to stay at $5.15 an hour. In real terms, it is now worth less today than in all but one of the last 50 years.

The minimum wage has been a cornerstone of our national economic policy for over 60 years, beginning with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1937. And recent economic research has shown that an adequate minimum wage lifts families out of poverty while posing little risk of job losses. But Congress has failed to update it since 1997. If the federal minimum wage from 1968 were adjusted for inflation, it would be worth $9.09 today–75 percent more than the current federal minimum wage of $5.15.

Should we have expected better from our own Senators, nope. Fourty-six of them flipped the bird to all the poor who have to continue to work for a piss poor pay check. However, there were a few of Rethugs who have redeemed themselves, they are:

  • Richard Lugar – IN,
  • Susan Collins – ME,
  • Olympia Snowe – ME,
  • Norm Coleman – MN,
  • Mike DeWhine – OH,
  • Arlen Specter – PA,
  • Lincoln Chafee – RI, and
  • John Warner – VA

This down right sad. Those who voted against it were all Rethugs. Gee, lets see them live off of $5.15 an hour.

Last month, the Labor Department reported that Consumer prices rose to 5.2%, led by rising costs for gasoline and housing.

Consumer prices rose briskly again in May, led by rising costs for gasoline and housing, the Labor Department reported yesterday, boosting the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will keep raising rates to restrain inflation.

With many motorists paying more than $3 a gallon for gasoline, landlords hiking rents and businesses passing on more of their rising energy and materials costs to shoppers, the department’s consumer price index rose 0.4 percent last month after a 0.6 percent increase the month before.

How does this effect those who make minumum wage? Since inflation was 3% last year, basicly those who earn minumum wage have had their wages cut by three percent. This is the case for every worker. What many people don’t realize, without a wage increase to cover the rate of inflation, it can be considered as getting a wage cut. It is difficult to see because if someone made $5.15 a year ago and continues to make $5.15, it doesn’t seem like a wage cut. But people need to see the big picture. If someone entered into the workforce they are usually given a salary based on the cost-of-living during that year, but as expenses keep going up, the same salary that you made a two years ago probably will not cover the expenses like it did before. So as prices increase year after year, the money made back then is not worth the same now.

From the Washington Post:

More than half of the May CPI increase reflected higher rents and hotel and motel rates. Rents have been rising as the housing market cools, vacancy rates fall and many landlords boost their prices to cover higher energy bills and property taxes. Lodging companies are raising room rates, and airlines are increasing fares as demand strengthens.
…
Gasoline prices, in particular, rose 4.9 percent last month, to a level higher than the previous peak in September after Hurricane Katrina battered Gulf Coast refineries and pipelines, the department said.

Prices also rose broadly last month in other categories, as consumers paid more for food, clothing, medical care, education, furnishings, used cars and trucks, and tickets to shows and sporting events.

So folks, lets give our 46 Senators a round of applause as they officially forced millions of Americans to go out and seek a second or third job just to make ends meet.