United States Minimum Wage Reaches Another New Low, Legislation Stalled in Congress. TAKE ACTION to Turn the Wheels of Justice.

Time once was, when I read a headline like Higher CPI May Keep the Fed in Play, I’d yawn and move on, thinking what a boring topic that must be for someone to spend their life writing about. Then I started to learn about what the Consumer Price Index is, what it measures, how it’s related to the minimum wage, and why we should all be spitting mad about that connection.

See, the Consumer Price Index is really at base a simple thing — a measure that tracks over time the price of a “market basket” of goods and services that people use to get by in this country. As the price of these goods goes up, the CPI goes up. Inflation is technically the change in the CPI between two time periods, but practically it is the measure of how much more money a person has to pay to get along in the USA.

Yesterday’s news about the increase in consumer inflation is important because while the cost of living rose, a large number of people saw no rise in their salary or wage. For those working at the bottom, for the federal minimum wage of $5.15, such increases in the cost of living have strong consequences because such people already have no margin for extras. Adjusting for inflation, yesterday’s figures tell us it is as if a person earning $5.15 in October of 2005 lost 6 cents over just the past six months, taking the person’s earnings down to $5.09 in the value of October 2005 dollars.

Let’s zoom out a bit and look at yesterday’s news in historic perspective. As of last month, the real (that is, inflation-adjusted) value of the United States minimum wage has reached a new historic low. The following graph shows the minimum wage, in nominal dollars and 2006 dollars, from 1950 to 2006:

(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

That’s right: as of this spring, the real value of the minimum wage is lower than it’s been in fifty-six years. As inflation continues to exert its eroding effect, the real value of the minimum wage will continue to fall into deeper historical depths.

Unless…

In the Senate, Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan has introduced S. 14, a bill to bring the minimum wage back up to a more typical historical level. Not one Republican has cosponsored it (of course), and it is languishing in the Senate.

Of the Democratic Party Senators who have toyed with the idea of running for President in 2008, only Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton have lent their support to this bill. Thank you, Senators Boxer and Clinton, for stepping up and showing leadership on this issue. This minimum wage legislation has not garnered the support of possible presidential contenders Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Russ Feingold, John Kerry, or Barack Obama. Perhaps Senators Biden, Feingold, Kerry and Obama have just engaged in an oversight, somehow forgetting to support the bill for the past sixteen months that it has been before the Senate. Click on these Senators’ names to find their phone numbers, then give them a wake-up call. If they want to lead the nation, these contenders are going to have to display better leadership. It is high time for Senators Bayh, Biden, Feingold, Kerry and Obama to add their cosponsorship to S. 14.

In the House of Representatives Democratic Representative George Miller and 133 cosponsors have lined up behind H.R. 2429, a bill which would return the minimum wage to about the level it had fallen to in 1982 over the space of two years. Of course, the Republican establishment in the House is standing firmly against the bill and have tried through the Rules Committee to block its consideration procedurally, but the Democrats have started a discharge petition to bypass the Rules committee and force a vote on H.R. 2429.

In order to succeed, the discharge petition must obtain the signatures of 218 members of Congress. As of today, it has 188 signatures. With just 30 more signatures (from a Congress of 435 members), the consideration of this consequential piece of legislation can be secured. This is a very practical campaign, and your effort can make a very real difference. Here’s what to do:

• Read the discharge petition, and find out whether your member of Congress has signed on. If they have, give them a big hoo-rah and a slap on the back.
• If your Representative has not signed the discharge petition, find out how to get in touch and give his or her office a ring. Don’t let the friendly office staff off the hook until they let you know exactly what your member of Congress plans to do.

If you have luck with either your member of the House or your Senators — or if they laugh in your face — post back here and let everyone know. If we pull together on this effort, there’s a real possibility for change that would make life just a bit easier for the working poor in Amerca.