Minimum-Wage Hike Battle Heats Up in Senate

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2006 — -- Anyone listening to the radio in recent weeks in Albuquerque, N.M., might have heard a man with a voice like a game-show host intoning "Let's play 'Who Deserves a Pay Raise?'"

The "contestants" are a nurse's assistant who works long, hard days and earns $5.15 an hour, and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., who "just voted herself another $3,300 pay raise, and [is] saying no to increasing the minimum wage."

Versions of this ad -- paid for by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- have been running in 10 competitive House districts across the country. But now they may have to undergo some creative editing.

Thanks to a hastily assembled package that passed the House in the wee hours of Saturday morning, vulnerable House Republicans like Wilson can now boast that they've voted in favor of a minimum wage hike. The bill, which passed with mostly Republican support, would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next three years but would also cut estate taxes and extend a host of other tax breaks.

Now the bill moves to the Senate, where Democrats are vowing to block it, calling it a cheap political ploy.

"This attempt at political blackmail is not going to work," said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in a speech at the liberal Center for American Progress. "[Republicans are] threatening to deny a $2.10 raise for 11 million Americans if they can't give away billions to 12,000 of their wealthiest friends."

It has been nine years since Congress last raised the minimum wage, and by some estimates it is currently at the lowest level relative to the cost of living in 50 years. Democrats have been agitating for an up or down vote on the issue for months (a vote in the Senate in June drew majority support but failed to generate the 60 votes needed for passage).

Noting that congressional salaries have increased by more than $30,000 during the nine years that the minimum wage has remained flat, Democrats have vowed to block this year's congressional pay raise until the minimum wage is raised.