It is an absolute disgrace that this Republican-led Congress is leaving town without raising the minimum wage for working people.

 When working people don’t do their jobs, they risk not getting paid. But when our leaders in Congress refuse to do their job, they not only get paid – they get a raise. Since minimum wage workers got their last pay raise in 1997, Congress has voted itself nine pay hikes totaling more than $30,000 per year.

For minimum wage workers, it’s a sadder story. Over the past 10 years, inflation has eaten away at the value of the minimum wage, and now its buying power is lower than it’s ever been since 1955.

Working families are struggling to deal with the rising cost of health care, housing, gas, and food -- but their wages are not keeping up.

The American people know what needs to be done. Eighty-eight percent support an increase in the minimum wage -- and that includes 72 percent of Republicans.

But this Republican Congress has other priorities. Its first priority is to give the richest 8,200 estates in America tax breaks averaging $1.3 million dollars each, which would blow a $753 billion hole in the deficit. In effect, Congress told minimum wage workers to stand in line behind Paris Hilton and the Wal-Mart heirs – at a time when the average corporate CEO has to work only until lunchtime on the first day of the year to make as much as a minimum wage worker makes in a year.

 Then Congress tried to link a minimum wage increase to a pay cut of up to $5.50 an hour for workers who earn tips for a living.

Talk about having your priorities upside down. This Republican-led Congress is completely out of touch with the economic concerns of working people.

The sad thing is Congress could easily pass a minimum wage bill if its leadership wanted to. A majority of both the House and Senate supported a clean increase in the minimum wage to $7.25. But instead, Republican leaders bowed to pressure from their corporate friends. They decided to block a clean vote on increasing the minimum wage to $7.25. They decided to play political games to make sure a minimum wage bill never became law.

So what do we do now? I think American workers are going to support candidates this November who will get the job done, who really mean it when they say they support an increase in the minimum wage, and who aren’t just saying whatever it takes to get elected.

And I think voters will be approving minimum wage ballot initiatives in November in six states: Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio. The AFL-CIO and ACORN are leading the minimum wage movement together – I’m glad that Julie Smith is here representing ACORN. Union members and ACORN members are hitting the streets and working the phones to reject the failures of Congress and vote changes at the state level – that’s exactly what we did to pass state minimum wage legislation this year in 12 states. We’re going to win these ballot initiatives too, and show Congress what voters want.

Contact: Steve Smith (202) 637-5018