On Election Day, state voters chose to override the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour and establish one for Colorado at a more livable $6.85. Now it’s time for Congress to reverse one of the principal inequities of the Bush years by raising the federal minimum wage in all 50 states.
The federal wage has been stuck at its current level since 1997, even as Congress has given itself numerous raises and CEO salaries have hit stratospheric levels. Colorado was among six states that approved a minimum wage increase on Nov. 7, aware that the nation’s lowest-paid workers can’t pay for 2007 medicine or rent at 1997 wages. Sadly, the new minimum in Colorado is still a poverty wage for a family of three, amounting to $14,248 a year before taxes. The poverty line for a family of three is $16,600.
Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged a vote to increase the federal minimum to $7.25 an hour as one of the Democrats’ first acts after taking control of Congress in January.
A reasonable federal minimum wage is preferable to the patchwork of state wage requirements that exist now. The federal minimum will supersede state levels only if it is higher. If not, state wages rule.
President Bush hinted shortly after the election that he might go along with a minimum-wage increase, and he should be prepared to sign on the dotted line.
Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have set base wages above the federal floor. Ten states, including Colorado, now index their minimum wages to the cost of living so that low-wage workers will not keep falling further behind. (The Post supports the use of inflation adjustments, but we opposed having it written into the state constitution).
Colorado’s new minimum is to take effect Jan. 1, and state economists expect that as a result of the inflation adjustment it will be raised annually for the first four years at a rate of 3.2 percent. If that holds, Colorado’s minimum would increase 23 cents on Jan. 1, 2008, to $7.08, and on Jan. 1, 2009, to $7.31, and so on.
If Congress phases in a new $7.25 base wage over three years, it won’t impact workers in Colorado because the state level will be slightly higher. If the full $7.25 is enacted immediately, however, it would supersede Colorado’s minimum. The state wage would continue to be indexed whether employers actually are paying it or not, said Rich Jones, director of policy and research for the Bell Policy Center. It would kick in in 2009 when it tops $7.25.
Congress can override the collection of state minimums by setting the federal wage at a fair level and adding regular adjustments so that poorly paid workers don’t fall short of a living wage.
