So Congress has finally passed a minimum wage hike, the first in almost a decade. While any increase is welcome, it is still too little, too late. The lowest paid Americans have been going downhill financially for years, along with most of the rest of us.

The new minimum wage will be raised gradually from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour by the summer of 2009. On the surface, this seems like a generous increase, but keep in mind that the minimum wage would be almost $10 an hour today if it had been adjusted for inflation since the 1960's. This chart from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the "real" value of the minimum wage is 30% below that of 1968 and 24% below that of 1979.
No one expects a minimum wage earner to live a life a luxury, BUT we should have a standard in this country that allows the lowest paid workers to pay for the basic necessities of life, which one can't do at $5.15 an hour.

Why should I care about the minimum wage? Well, for two reasons. There is the humanist, compassionate reason first of all. To paraphrase Gandhi, the greatness of a society is measured by how it treats the least of its members. And the fact that our nation, the richest in the world, has a minimum wage that doesn't even keep up with inflation is despicable.

My second reason is self-interest. The minimum wage is the floor, and it affects the wages of all of us. It's kind of hard to keep skilled workers at $10 an hour when one can get the same flipping burgers at McDonald's.

The "trickle down" theory of Reaganomics, which George H.W. Bush called "voodoo economics" before he sold his soul to be Vice President, is a sham. At its' core is the belief that putting more money in the hands of the wealthy will eventually trickle down to the rest of us through increased investment, job creation, etc. That is total bullshit. When you put more money in the hands of the wealthy, all they do is create more wealth for themselves by investing in things like the stock market. Since 1980 the GDP has grown by two thirds, but the wages of most American workers has gone down when considering inflation. But not the top 10%! Their income has increased by 25% over the same period.

Here's an idea: put more money in the hands of the rest of us, and that will eventually trickle up to the most wealthy. If people on the lower end have more money in their pockets, they will spend it, and that will help business grow, and that in turn will put more money in the pockets of the wealthy. John F. Kennedy referred to it as "a rising tide lifts all boats."

Santa Fe tried this when they passed their "living wage" law, which immediately increased the minimum wage paid in the city and pegged future increases to cost of living increases. The current Santa Fe minimum wage is $9.50, and it will be increased to $10.50 in January 2008. From then on, it will increase based upon increases in the consumer price index.

Oh, how the Santa Fe business community fought this law. They claimed businesses would go broke because they couldn't afford to pay their workers. They claimed Santa Fe would become a ghost town with nothing but shuttered storefronts. But guess what? Business has actually flourished in Santa Fe since the law was passed. All those people who work at Walmart can actually afford to buy shit. And that's lifting the economy for everyone.

Now there's a great idea that I would like to see instituted all around the country.