US campaigners are fighting to force Congress to vote for the first increase in the minimum wage for nine years, as new evidence reveals that the average CEO now earns more than 800 times as much as the lowest-paid workers.
The US' minimum wage has been stuck at US$5.15 an hour since 1997, during a period when earnings at the top of the income scale have exploded.
Research by the Washington-based think-tank, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), shows that when bonuses and other incentives are taken into account, the average CEO earns as much before lunch on their first day in the office as a worker on the minimum wage takes home in an entire year.
buying power
The EPI's calculations also demonstrate that, as inflation has chipped away at the value of the minimum wage, its buying power has hit the lowest level since 1955.
With Congressional elections due in November, Democrats in the House of Representatives have attached a clause calling for a US$2.10 increase in the minimum wage to a bill currently passing through Congress; but the Republicans have refused to let it come to a vote.
"They don't want to hold a vote because they believe they will lose," said Bill Samuel, legislative director of the union federation, the AFL-CIO.
`poison-pills'
A bid to pass a Senate bill mandating a rise was defeated this month, after it was laced with "poison-pill" clauses, which would have dismantled other forms of worker protection.
The AFL-CIO is planning a summer of protests to push the minimum wage up the political agenda before the mid-term elections, in what it calls its "Give America a Raise" campaign.
It points out that Representatives have granted themselves nine pay-rises while the minimum wage has stood still, and contrasts their stinginess with the Bush administration's lavish tax cuts for the wealthy.
A number of states have introduced higher minimum wage rates, and six are holding referendums about an increase. But Republicans and business groups argue that setting the level too high would cost thousands of jobs.
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