MOsanthrope

Posted by Chris on June 14, 2006 at 10:46 am.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday embraced a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500.

The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate.

Well isn’t that nice. What about working-class Americans?

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a surprise move, a House panel voted Tuesday for a hike in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25, which would be the first increase in a decade.

That is a surprise! Now that Congress has decided to give itself its seventh consecutive cost-of-living pay raise, it’s actually considering, for the first time in ten years, an increase in the federal minimum wage?

There must be a catch.

But the move by the Appropriations Committee, as an amendment to a bill funding health and education programs, is likely to be stripped out when the measure comes to the House floor.

That’s because the panel does not officially have jurisdiction over the issue, and Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, said will strike the provision on the floor.

McKeon said he has no plans to move a stand-alone bill raising the minimum wage.

* * *

Republicans counter that raising the wage would provoke inflation and lead to job losses, especially for young people just entering the job market.

Oh. Right.

(Irony via Rising Hegemon).

Filed under: Politics, Business, U.S.