Scorecard: AFSCME 2007 House Scorecard

Org. position: {{{Vote position 1}}}

Description:

"The House approved a bill (H.R. 2) to raise the minimum wage from its current $5.15 an hour to $7.25 in three steps over the next 26 months."

(Original scorecard available at: http://www.afscme.org/legislation-politics/19812.cfm)

Scorecard: American Conservative Union 2007 House Scorecard

Org. position: Nay

Description:

"The House passed a bill increasing the federal minimum wage by $2.10 over two years, to $7.25 an hour, a 41 percent increase, after rejecting provisions that would have assisted small businesses in meeting its requirements. ACU opposed this bill."

(Original scorecard available at: http://www.acuratings.org/)

Scorecard: Americans for Democratic Action 2007 House Scorecard

Org. position: Aye

Description:

"Passage of a bill to increase the federal minimum wage by $2.10 over two years from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. Sixty days after enactment, the minimum wage would be $5.85 an hour, a year later, $6.55 an hour, and the next year, $7.25 an hour. A federal minimum wage of $3.55 an hour would be extended to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 60 days after enactment, rising in 50-cent increments every six months until it reaches $7.25 per hour. Thus the Marianas would no longer be a sweat-shop haven for “Made in USA” goods. Passed 315-116."

(Original scorecard available at http://www.adaction.org/pages/publications/voting-records.php

Scorecard: Drum Major Institute 2007 House Scorecard

Org. position: Aye

Description:

"At less than $11,000 a year for a full-time worker, the federal minimum wage is a poverty wage. It is a rate at which it is impossible for working Americans to independently pay their rent, feed their families or get needed medical care—much less save for the types of investments that make it possible to work one’s way into the middle class, like an education, a first home or the chance to start a business. Contrary to the stereotype of the minimum wage worker as a teenager with nothing to purchase but junk food and movie tickets, the typical minimum wage worker is an adult providing more than half of his or her family’s total earnings. According to the Economic Policy Institute, nearly half of families with a worker who would benefit from a minimum wage increase rely on that worker’s pay as the family’s only source of earnings. As thirty-four states have raised their minimum wages above the federal rate, economists have also had more opportunities to study the effects of minimum wage increases, concluding that raising the minimum wage does not lead to the loss of jobs as critics had threatened. This version of the bill, without tax cuts for business, is significant because in the past ten years Congress showered businesses with hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks even as hardworking families earning the federal minimum wage received no raise at all, and in fact saw their paychecks eaten away by inflation"

(Original scorecard available at http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/report.php?ID=63

Scorecard: Club For Growth 2007 Senate Scorecard

Org. position: {{{Vote position 1}}}

Description:

"Vote on the bill would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour over two years and provide $8.3 billion in small-business tax incentives The pro-growth vote was "nay" because the minimum wage is a market-distorting price control on labor. Passed 94-3."

(Original scorecard available at: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2008/05/the_2007_congressional_scoreca_1.php)

Scorecard: FreedomWorks 2007 Senate Scorecard

Org. position: Nay

Description:

"This bill raises the nationally mandated minimum wage across the boad, increasing costs for small businesses and eliminating entry-level jobs for the least skilled workers. “Nay” votes scored"

(Original scorecard available at: http://www.freedomworks.org/keyvotes/2007_senate.php)