28 Senators Vote to Repeal Minimum Wage. 2008 Elections, Anyone?

by Mike Hall, Jan 25, 2007

Maybe in 1938, the idea of a federal minimum wage was controversial. But not so much so that a majority of the House and Senate couldn’t approve the Fair Labor Standards Act that set the federal minimum wage at 25 cents an hour.

So in 2007, how can anyone with a shred of common sense, let alone an ounce of empathy for men and women who bust their tails day in and day out for $5.15 an hour, say it’s time to scrap the federal minimum wage?

Yesterday, 69 years after the minimum wage was first established, 28 U.S. senators did just that when they voted “yes” on an amendment from Colorado Republican Wayne Allard that would have scrapped the federal minimum wage. (Click here to see the 28 senators who voted for the Allard amendment. They should be ashamed of themselves and if they are your lawmakers, let them know how wrong they were.)

We’re not making this up. Here’s what Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) had to say about the Allard amendment that was offered to the Senate bill (S. 2) to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour:

On the Allard amendment, members should understand what the effect of the Allard amendment is, and that is effectively to repeal the minimum wage for any states among the 50 states. That effectively is what the Allard amendment does.

Allard hid the repeal behind the “state flexibility” mask, claiming states should be allowed to set their own rates, without a federal floor, because of different costs of living and differing economies. The amendment would nullify the federal minimum wage standard in the 45 states that have their own minimum wage law, and allow the five states that don’t—Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee—to opt-out of any federal minimum wage increase by passing a minimum wage law providing at least $5.15 an hour.

As if speaking to reluctant Depression-era lawmakers wary of federal intrusion on the states, Kennedy explained the reason for a minimum wage floor:

The concept of the minimum wage was that it was going to be a minimum payment, a minimum standard. What was accepted at the time of the minimum wage is that in this country, we didn’t want to accelerate a rush to the bottom so that we would have competition in the various states to pay the lowest possible wages–sweat labor–in order to try to attract industries into those particular States, but to provide a minimum standard.

Here in the 21st century, that simple reasoning just didn’t penetrate the skulls of 28 U.S. senators—who by the way make $165,200 a year and almost annually vote to give themselves a pay raise.

Meanwhile, after 43 Republican senators yesterday maneuvered to kill a clean minimum wage bill with no tax giveaways to business, debate continues today on another Senate minimum wage bill that includes business tax cuts and other giveaways. A final vote likely won’t take place until next week, but we will give you an update tomorrow.