Raising the minimum wage
March 7, 2007
Today I call on Pete Domenici to support raising the minimum wage for working New Mexicans.
The US House of Representatives passed a raise in the minimum wage on January 10th. The House version is a clean bill. It simply raises the minimum wage from the current $5.15 per hour to$7.25. The raise would affect 13 million Americans, many thousands of New Mexicans.
The Senate version is not clean. The Senate, including Pete Domenici, has inserted an $8.3 billion tax cut. This is a blackmail tactic against the poorest working Americans.
The business community has received over $300 billion in tax cuts in the nine years since the last time the minimum wage was raised. And Pete Domenici has received pay raises totaling $31,600 in the same time period.
I urge Pete Domenici to support a clean increase in the minimum wage.