
Not even a week after the Congress voted itself a pay raise, the not-so-compassionate conservatives in the Senate voted down any bump in the $5.15 national minimum wage.
AP:
The Republican-controlled Senate smothered a proposed election-year increase in the minimum wage Wednesday, rejecting Democratic claims that it was past time to boost the $5.15 hourly pay floor that has been in effect for nearly a decade.
The 52-46 vote was eight short of the 60 needed for approval under budget rules and came one day after House Republican leaders made clear they do not intend to allow a vote on the issue, fearing it might pass.
The Senate vote marked the ninth time since 1997 that Democrats there have proposed and Republicans have blocked a stand-alone increase in the minimum wage. The debate fell along predictable lines.
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