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Democratic control of Congress is expected to result in an increase in the federal minimum wage, which has been $5.15 an hour since 1997, to $7.25 an hour by 2009. The House voted 315-116 on January 10, 2007 for three $0.70 an hour increases. The federal minimum wage peaked in 1968, when its value was about $9 an hour in today's dollars.

President Bush said he supported the $2.10 or 41 percent increase, but wants to link an increase in the minimum wage to tax cuts for small businesses.

An estimated six million US workers earn the minimum wage, and a total of 13 million who earn under $7.25 an hour would likely have their wages raised. The Washington-based Living Wage Resource Center http://www.livingwagecampaign.org) wants a federal minimum wage increase to be indexed to the cost of living.

Voters in six states approved initiatives in November 2006 to raise minimum wages above $5.15, including Arizona (to $6.75 an hour), Colorado (to $6.85), Missouri (to $6.50), Montana (to $6.15), Nevada (to $6.15) and Ohio (to $6.85). In each of these states, the minimum wage will rise with the cost of living (in Nevada, the minimum will remain $1 more than the federal minimum wage, and employers can avoid paying the extra dollar if they provide sufficient health insurance to their employees). As of September 2006, four states had indexed minimum wages that rose every year with the cost of living: Florida, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

According to the New York Times on December 20, 2006, 28 states with 70 percent of US workers have minimum wages above $5.15. From 2001 to 2005, in the 11 states with minimum wages higher than the federal one, employment growth was slightly faster than in those states with the $5.15 minimum.

California's minimum wage rose from $6.75 to $7.50 on January 1, 2007, giving 1.4 million workers an 11 percent raise; it will rise to $8 January 1, 2008. Restaurants and other employers who have minimum wage employees strongly opposed the increase, but agreed when cost-of-living indexing was dropped. The state has 87,000 restaurants, and industry leaders say they will raise the wages of all workers, including those now earning more than the minimum.

San Francisco has the only citywide living wage in the state, $9.14 in 2007. Voters in November 2006 approved an initiative on a 61-39 vote to make the city the first to require employers to provide paid sick leave for all employees. The measure, effective in February 2007, requires employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked by an employee, full-time or part-time. Businesses with 10 or fewer employees must offer five days of paid sick leave a year for each worker, while larger employers max out at nine days a year.

The Golden Gate Restaurant Association sued to overturn part of the ordinance, arguing that requiring employers to contribute to health insurance violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Federal courts in Maryland struck down a law requiring larger employers such as Wal-Mart to provide health insurance or pay into a fund as a violation of ERISA.

The International Labor Rights Fund in October 2005 sued Wal-Mart, alleging that it did not enforce its "Standards for Suppliers" in garment factories in China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Swaziland and Nicaragua. The standards require local firms to obey local labor laws, and the workers sued Wal-Mart as third-party beneficiaries to Wal-Mart's contracts with their employers. However, a federal judge in December 2006 dismissed the workers' suit.

Wal-Mart is the largest US private employer, with 1.3 million employees. In December 2006 Wal-Mart announced an Associates Out in Front program that, for instance, gives an additional 10 percent discount to employees on one item and creates listening sessions with managers.

The Los Angeles City Council, at the behest of unions, in November 2006 extended the city's living wage ordinance to the 3,500 workers employed by 12 Los Angeles Airport-area hotels, arguing they benefit from their proximity to city-owned Los Angeles Airport even if they do no business with the city. Los Angeles' living wage ordinance requires that workers be paid at least $10.64 an hour in 2006, unless the employer has a union contract; extending it to cover Los Angeles Airport-area hotels is part of a campaign to organize hotel workers. The hotel owners announced in December 2006 that they had obtained enough signatures to require a referendum on the ordinance.

Beginning with a law in Baltimore in 1994, more than 120 cities around the country have adopted living wage laws that apply to employers that receive government contracts or financial incentives; most require that workers be paid at least $9 to $11 an hour. Most economists favor earned income tax credits over minimum wages as a means to reduce poverty; the EITC provides payments to low-earning workers with children; 20 states and three cities have EITC programs.

Some $28 billion in so-called payday loans were made in 2006, according to the New York Times on December 23, 2006, a doubling since 2001. In most cases, borrowers show that they have a regular source of income and leave a predated check with the lender. Many of these checks are not cashed, as borrowers roll over the loan, paying interest on interest so that rates can reach over 500 percent a year. Some states set limits of $15 to $17 per $100 borrowed for two weeks.

Rural Employment. Rural or nonmetro counties had about 23 million workers in 2005, a sixth of the US total; in 1976, nonmetro counties had 27 percent of US workers. Over the past several decades, the unemployment rates of metro and nonmetro areas have converged, but earnings differences have widened. In 2004, average earnings were $47,200 in metro areas, and $31,600 in nonmetro areas, or 25 percent less (USDA estimates that living costs are about 16 percent lower in nonmetro areas).

Most jobs in nonmetro areas are nonfarm jobs; only six percent are agricultural. Manufacturing employs 12 percent of nonmetro workers.

Metro counties are those with urbanized areas of 50,000 or more, plus outlying counties that are economically tied to the core counties as measured by work commuting. http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/rurality) In 2003, there were 2,052 nonmetro and 1,090 metro counties.

The US unemployment rate hit a five-year low of 4.4 percent in October 2006, as the service sector added jobs; the rate was 4.5 percent in November 2006.

Wage growth continued to lag for all but the best paid, creating the so-called "anxious middle." The pay of US workers with less than advanced degrees declined between 2000 and 2005, down five percent for those with less than a high-school diploma to an average of $22,400 in 2005. Average pay for those with law, business or medical degrees rose 11 percent, to an average $119,300 in 2005. BA degree holders saw their average earnings decline to $56,700 in 2005. Theories to explain sharply rising wages for the best educated include "winner takes all" changes, as when technology allows the very best in a particular activity to earn a very high wage, and a rapidly-increasing demand for persons with advanced degrees.

The Fortune 500 companies had revenues of $9 trillion in 2005. According to the Hackett Group, they could save $60 billion a year by moving 1.5 million back-office jobs overseas. Over the past five years, US employment rose by almost six million.

CNN host Lou Dobbs' 12-chapter book, "War on the Middle Class" (Viking), sees illegal migrants as a threat to American culture, security and wages; he wants employers fined $50,000 for each unauthorized worker they hire. According to Dobbs, some $2.1 billion was spent lobbying the federal government in 2004, an average $5.8 million a day.

Marc Lifsher and Alana Semuels, "Wage hike finding quiet acceptance," Los Angeles Times, January 1, 2007. Louis Uchitelle, "Raising the Floor on Pay," New York Times, December 20, 2006. Lisa Girion, "Wage bill will hurt L.A., business leaders warn," Los Angeles Times, November 17, 2006. Kusmin, Lorin and Timothy Parker. Eds. 2006. Rural Employment At A Glance. Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB-21). December.