The wait is finally over. Minimum wage workers, who have gone more than a decade without a raise, saw the first of a three-step minimum wage increase go into effect on July 24. This first step raised the minimum wage from $5.15 (where it had been frozen since 1997) to $5.85. The second step will raise the minimum wage to $6.55 on July 24, 2008; and the third step will raise the minimum wage to $7.25 on July 24, 2009. The effort to raise the federal minimum wage took many twists and turns before the bill was enacted. In January, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a “clean” minimum wage bill that simply would have raised the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25, with no business tax cuts or other special-interest provisions. When it became clear they wouldn't have the 60 votes needed to override the filibuster against the clean bill, the that called for a $2.10-an-hour raise for minimum wage workers but would have handed businesses $8.3 billion in tax cuts. Then, the Republican minority in the Senate held up negotiations between the House and Senate on the minimum wage tax package so they could maximize the amount of business tax breaks in the final legislation. The issue was raised once again on Capitol Hill when House and Senate Democrats attached the $2.10 increase in the minimum wage to the bill to provide emergency funding for the Iraq war, along with $4.8 billion in tax breaks for business. But on May 1, President Bush vetoed the Iraq funding bill, together with the minimum wage hike. Finally, three weeks later, Congress passed the minimum wage increase (along with $4.8 billion in tax breaks) within an Iraq funding bill that the president was willing to sign. President Bush signed the minimum wage increase into law on May 25, 2007. | 
