As Congress considers raising the nation’s minimum wage, it’s a good time to point out that it’s not just for teens earning pocket money. At $7.25 an hour, the current minimum wage hasn’t been raised for three years. Proposals in both the House and Senate would increase the federal minimum wage to $9.80 by July 1, 2014.

A report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) points out that

87.9 percent of those affected nationally by increasing the federal minimum wage to $9.80 are 20 years of age and older. The share of those affected who are 20 or older varies by state, from a low of 77.1 percent in Massachusetts to a high of 92.4 percent in Florida (and 93.9 percent in the District of Columbia).

This is a cross-post from Young Invincibles.

Last week, Congress took an unusual bipartisan step and voted to keep interest rates low on popular subsidized Stafford Loans.

House Republicans killed another jobs bill tonight, with nearly all of them casting a vote on a procedural motion that buried the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act (H.R. 639). The bill, which would have held China accountable for its job-killing currency manipulation, was passed last night by the Senate. The motion to bring the bill to the floor was defeated 192-236, with only four Republicans joining 188 Democrats in supporting the move to bring the legislation to a vote.

Next week, the U.S. Senate will take up consideration of a bill to address Chinese currency manipulation. The Republican-controlled House is holding up its version of the legislation, even though it passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2010, with 99 Republicans supporting it.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) gave a powerful statement this morning on the House floor in which he described the real agenda of anti-worker governors, state lawmakers and Republicans in Congress who are targeting America’s working families through the guise of budget-cutting. Some snippets below, but you gotta watch his full speech.

How bad is the Republican federal budget proposal? AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel describes it as an “all-out assault against middle-class Americans.”