The Senate voted to increase the minimum wage from $5.15/hour to $7.25/hour over two years.  This means if you work full-time at a minimum wage job (think fast food), with no time off, you would make a whopping $15,080/year!  Unfortunately, that is not enough to support one person, let alone a family.

Minimum wage jobs, such as those at fast-food restaurants, were never meant to be full-time, family-supporting jobs.  If the Senate thinks that throwing money into low wage jobs will solve the nation’s poverty, they are sorely mistaken.  They are going about this the wrong way.  Training and job counseling will help more underemployed workers than will an increase of $2.10/hour.

Also included was some tax breaks for small business – those companies that employ minimum wage workers.  Of course, the house version included no tax breaks and this has to be negotiated before the final bill is ready.

The best part of the bill is the call for barring employers from Federal contracts if they hire illegal aliens.  Let see if this part gets through the house.