The national minimum wage went up 70 cents today, kicking in as part of three-step gradual increase mandated by Congress last year.
The minimum wage rose from $5.85 an hour to $6.55, as outlined in the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007, which was signed by a reluctant President Bush on May 25 of that year.
Before that legislation, America’s lowest-paid workers earned $5.15 an hour. Their pay rose 70 cents two months after the bill was enacted, and it will leap up again to $7.25 a year from today. In all, the bill raised the minimum wage $2.10, at three 70-cent increases over three years.
The minimum wage increase was the first item congressional Democrats enacted from their much-promoted “100 hours agenda,” forwarded when they first took a the majority in Congress in 2006.