Here's a new poll which shows that a clear two-thirds majority of the American public support an increase in the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10 per hour. Here's more on the poll:
Two-thirds of Americans support raising the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour, according to a new poll. The federal minimum wage rose in 2009 to $7.25, which amounts to about $15,000 a year.
"This poll is yet another affirmation that maintaining a strong minimum wage is a core American value," said National Employment Law Project director Christine Owens in a statement. "Americans overwhelmingly support a minimum wage rate that will help working families make ends meet and provide the boost the economy needs for full recovery."
And get this---from the same poll, even a majority of Republicans (51%) support the increase in the minimum wage.
But here's where the crazy Tea Partiers come in--50% of those identified as teabaggers OPPOSE the increase in the minimum wage, and 47% favor the increase in the minimum wage. Did you know that:
The minimum wage, first instituted in the 1930s, would be above $10 today already if it had kept pace with inflation, according to NELP.
So, basically increasing the minimum wage to $10 dollars per hour from the scant $7.25 an hour, would be keeping in pace with inflation. Today's minimum wage is grossly below that, where over 980,000 Americans currently earn that amount. And did you know that there are over 2 million Americans that earn less than the minimum wage? Some of them are disabled workers, in some cases that have earned just eleven cents an hour for their work, and not many Americans are aware that this exemption from the minimum wage exists for disabled workers.
Just 980,000 U.S. workers earn exactly the minimum wage, and 2.6 million earn less, according to the Labor Department. Those groups make up just 4.9 percent of hourly-paid workers. The progressive Economic Policy Institute estimated (PDF) that an additional 1.6 million workers making slightly more than the minimum would benefit from the 2009 increase due to "spillover effects" that preserve the wage structure in a firm.
Also, I have family members that earn that $7.25 an hour in minimum wage. An increase in the minimum wage would help them, especially with their children. It would mean an increase to $20,000 in annual salary from their current $15,000 in annual salary. That $5,000 increase would mean a better quality of life for my relatives and their children.
I'm quite aware that businesses and the foreign-backed Chamber of Commerce would squawk and squeal about our working class Americans getting what they deserve in minimum wage, but I don't give a flying flip about them. I give a flying flip about progressive Democrats, and helping retain our majority in Congress. It's why I will always continue to support progressive Democratic candidates, because progressive policies help people like those in my family.