Minimum Wage Pay Hike In Effect Today

Nearly 4 million American workers are getting a pay raise today.

The minimum wage rises 50 cents to $4.75 an hour, the first of two increases enacted by a sharply divided Congress that will boost it to $5.15 an hour next Sept. 1.

The 90-cent raise means an additional $1,800 annually for a full-time worker. The last increase, 45 cents, was in April 1991.

“The minimum wage is not going to cure poverty in one fell swoop,” Labor Secretary Robert Reich said in an interview. “But clearly this is a major step forward for hard-working people at the bottom rung of our economy.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said 3.66 million hourly workers earn at or below the current minimum.

Congress enacted the increase on Aug. 2 - a rare Democratic legislative victory during 20 months of Republican control that came only with the help of GOP moderates.

“I don’t think there was a single issue in the 104th Congress on which the sides were so opposed and the debate was so clear,” Reich said.

In the end, the legislation included a $21 billion package of tax cuts over 10 years, mollifying conservatives and their small-business backers, who are getting more generous equipment write-offs and a new type of simplified pension plan for companies employing 100 or fewer workers.