Minimum wage stuck in place since '97, as congressional action stalls

Published: 2006-07-21

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In his 1931 social encyclical "Quadragesimo Anno," Pope Pius XI said, "The wage paid to the working man must be sufficient for the support of himself and his family." In that case, the current federal minimum wage of $5.15 would not qualify. Someone working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year at the minimum wage would earn $10,712. According to the U.S. bishops' Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the federal poverty line for a family of three is $16,090. The minimum wage was last raised In 1997. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, one would need to have $6.51 today to have the same buying power $5.15 had in 1997 -- an increase of 26.4 percent. The bishops have been monitoring bills that would raise the minimum wage. One would raise it immediately by $2 to $7.15 an hour. Another would raise the wage by $2.10 in three 70-cent increases -- the first would take effect immediately upon the bill's signing, and the other two on the first and second anniversaries of that signing.

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