If you do the math the numbers are $5.15 per hour times 40 hours per week times 52 weeks a year... with no vacation and no holidays you get the grand total of $10,712 per year or $206 per week. Note that this is before the income, social security and medicare taxes are taken out which will reduce it by at least a third.
Just for the record, just this month, Congress agreed to keep their automatic salary increase for cost of living.
This is a very partisan issue. Every Democrat present voted for the minimum wage increase. The only Republicans that seem to have some concern for the fate of the American worker and to join Democrats were Senators Chafee, Collins, DeWine, Lugar, Snowe, Specter, and Warner ( Jeffords too).
I suppose the Republicans are counting on the typical American amnesia to kick in before the November elections. They assume by that time all the poor bastards they just screwed one more time will have forgotten this new insult. The tragedy is they may be right. It is amazing how often the folks that have the most to lose vote for the party that will surely ignore their needs and do nothing for them.
I captured the 2004 Poverty chart from HHS below. You can readily see that even two years ago, if you consider taxes, not even a single person makes the grade. I am really trying to understand how the folks that voted against the Kennedy bill sleep at night. There wasn't even a counter proposal to meet Kennedy half way. It is just another American tragedy under this Republican misadministration.
2004 HHS Poverty Guidelines
| Size of Family Unit | 48 Contiguous States and D.C. | Alaska | Hawaii |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $ 9,310 | $11,630 | $10,700 |
| 2 | 12,490 | 15,610 | 14,360 |
| 3 | 15,670 | 19,590 | 18,020 |
| 4 | 18,850 | 23,570 | 21,680 |
| 5 | 22,030 | 27,550 | 25,340 |
| 6 | 25,210 | 31,530 | 29,000 |
| 7 | 28,390 | 35,510 | 32,660 |
| 8 | 31,570 | 39,490 | 36,320 |
| For each additional person, add | 3,180 | 3,980 | 3,660 |
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