The Washington state minimum wage increases 30 cents to $7.93 an hour on Monday. The state's lowest legal hourly wage is adjusted for inflation every year as a result of Initiative 688, filed by Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender, supported by the state labor movement and dozens of community organizations, and ultimately approved by voters by a 2-to-1 margin in 1998.

The annual cost-of-living adjustment aimed to take the politics out of the minimum wage issue by indexing the wage to the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). For the 12 months ending August 2006, that nationwide index increased 3.9 percent. The new minimum wage applies to workers in both agricultural and non-agricultural jobs; 14- and 15-year-olds may be paid 85 percent of the adult minimum wage.

"It's great news for minimum wage earners every year that get the cost-of-living raise they deserve," Bender said, "but $7.93 an hour is still poverty wages for thousands of Washington families who are struggling to afford a tank of gas or a trip to the doctor. Every year, we should congratulate ourselves that the law is working as voters intended, and then rededicate ourselves to the fight for maintaining and creating good family-wage jobs."

Washington was the first state to approve a state minimum wage increase that included annual inflationary adjustments. The idea quickly caught on in Oregon, where voters approved an initiative similar to Washington's I-688. Oregon's minimum wage also rose 30 cents on Monday to $7.80 an hour. In November's election, six more states approved initiatives to increase their minimum wages and index them to the inflation rate. 

The reason many state and municipal governments are raising the minimum wage is that the federal minimum wage remains at a shameful $5.15 an hour.  Under the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, the wages of the lowest paid workers in the country have been allowed to stagnate -- and be eroded by inflation -- for 10 years. 

As WSLC President Bender pointed out in his April 2006 column, "Since 1997, the cost of a loaf of bread has gone from $.86 to $1.04; the cost of a dozen eggs has gone from $1.15 to $1.45; and the cost of a gallon of gas has gone from $1.26 to $2.32, according to the BLS.  But the lowest legal wage hasn’t gone up one stinkin’ dime.  And during that period, Congress has voted itself eight pay raises totaling $31,600, or three full years’ pay for a federal minimum wage worker."

The Democrats who voters swept into power in November vow to approve legislation to raise the federal minimum wage in their first 100 hours controlling Congress. But President Bush said he wants that legislation to include business tax breaks. 

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Bush's attempt to couple the issues "makes it painfully clear that the President has learned nothing from the message working people sent at the polls in November."

Washington's indexed minimum wage has prevented the state rate from becoming mired in politics as it has in the other Washington. But the powerful restaurant and agriculture industries continue to pressure the state legislature every year to try to exempt their industries' workers from the wage requirement or stop the annual adjustments. The labor movement has aggressively opposed those efforts, and so far, attempts to create sub-minimum wages for certain workers or employees who earn tips have been unsuccessful.

The most recent attempt to cut Washington's minimum wage, involved a congressional bill debated in August that would have permanently repealed the estate tax and raised the federal minimum wage. But the bill included language -- inserted at the behest of the National Restaurant Association -- that would have imposed a "tip penalty" in Washington and some other states, and allowed employers to pay as little as $2.13 an hour to workers who earn tips. Republican Reps. Dave Reichert, Cathy McMorris and Doc Hastings all voted for the measure, but it was killed in the Senate with Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray casting key votes in opposition.