The Fair Minimum Wage Act proposes to raise the minimum wage in three stages – first to $5.85/hour within two months of passage, then to $6.45/hour a year later and finally to $7.25/hour after another year.  This would be the first minimum wage increase at the federal level since 1997.

House of Representatives
As part of the Democratic majority’s first 100 hours initiative, the House of Representatives passed the Fair Minimum Wage Act on January 10, 2007 by a 315-117 margin.  

Click here to read the text of the bill.

Click here to see how each member of the House voted.

The Senate

The Fair Minimum Wage Act faced a tougher battle in the Senate.

On January 4, the Fair Minimum Wage Act was introduced in the Senate with the same language as the House bill.  Though a majority of Senators supported the bill as written, it did not have the 60 votes needed to override a filibuster. 

Because that procedural vote – called cloture – failed on January 24, 2007, a substitute bill with significant tax cuts and other non-germane amendments passed the Senate by a vote of 94-3 on February 1, 2007. 

Click here to see how each Senator voted on cloture.

For up-to-date analysis and commentary on the bill and its legislative progress, visit the minimum wage section of our blog.