Minimum wage workers around the country will receive a long-overdue pay raise if legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives today becomes law, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said.

    “This is a well-deserved and long-overdue raise for the millions of American workers who are now earning the current minimum wage,” said Smith, one of only eight Republicans to cosponsor the legislation. 

    The bill, the “Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007,” would raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to an eventual level of $7.25 an hour. The $2.10 increase would come in three phases over a two-year period. The “Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007” passed the House by a vote of 315-116.

    The federal minimum wage was last increased in 1997 to the $5.15 an hour, where it currently stands. Twenty-nine states, including New Jersey, now have a minimum wage higher than $5.15 per hour. Minimum wage in New Jersey is currently $7.15 an hour.

    “It has been far too long—ten years in fact—since the minimum wage has been increased. Hourly workers have been under pressure to make enough to get by on wages that have not kept up with inflation. And while some states—including New Jersey—have raised their minimum wage, the fact of the matter is without Congressional action many American workers will not see a raise in the near future,” Smith said 

    Smith has supported increases to the federal minimum wage since coming to Congress. As far back as 1989, Smith was one of only twenty Republicans who voted to override President George H.W. Bush’s veto of legislation that would have raised the minimum wage. Most recently, Smith voted for a minimum wage increase to the $7.25 an hour last July. The minimum wage increase passed the House, but that bill was not considered in the Senate before the 109^th Congress adjourned. 

    “An increase in the minimum wage will make a positive change in the lives of the millions of people—a majority of whom are woman—who are currently struggling to make ends meet. Helping American workers put food on the table and provide for their families is a responsibility that should not be put off any longer,” said Smith.