17,000 Wyo. workers get raise today

Contact:  Bill Luckett, Executive director   307-473-1457 (office)   307-473-1459 (fax)  

From the Wyoming Democratic Party

For immediate release

July 24, 2007

Contact: Bill Luckett

Communications director

307-631-7638

17,000 Wyo. workers get raise today

Democrats mark first increase in minimum wage in a decade

WASHINGTON -- Starting today, thousands of Wyoming workers will get a hard-earned raise because Democrats in Washington kept their promise to America's working families. During the 2006 elections, Democrats pledged to pass the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade. Democrats kept that promise, voting to increase the minimum wage despite intense obstructionism from Republicans like Barbara Cubin and Mike Enzi.

Over the next two years, nearly 13 million American workers will benefit from increasing the minimum wage to $7.25, including 17,000 people in the Cowboy State. [Economic Policy Institute, June 2006; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 8/2/06] While Republicans like Cubin and Enzi joined the rest of the Bush Republicans in putting their special interest friends ahead of the American people by trying to block a minimum wage hike, Democrats delivered on our promise.

"Today's minimum wage increase is an important reminder that the Democratic Party is truly the party that respects and honors America's working families," said John Millin, Wyoming Democratic Party chairman. "Even with Republicans like Rep. Cubin and Sen. Enzi trying to block it every step of the way, Democrats in Congress kept their promise and gave thousands of Wyoming's working people a long-overdue raise. Too many Wyoming families have to work too hard just to make ends meet, a reality that Republicans in Washington refused to confront while they controlled Congress. This milestone is more proof that Democrats have done more for working families in six months than the Bush Republicans did in six years."

The minimum wage increases today for the first time in 10 years, from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 an hour. The minimum wage will increase by 70 cents over the next two summers, until it reaches $7.25 an hour in 2009.

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