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Klobuchar Votes for Minimum Wage Increase for Minnesota Working Families

Senate Passed Bill Preserves MN Law that Safeguards Workers from Tip Penalty

February 1, 2007

(Washington, D.C.) U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar today voted to increase the federal minimum wage. The Senate passed its minimum wage bill (H.R. 2) by 94 to 3 votes. Among other things, the bill increases the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25; provides tax credits and other relief to small businesses; and upholds Minnesota's - and other states' - law to protect tipped workers from the "tip penalty."

Currently, federal law penalizes tipped employees - including waitresses - by only giving them a minimum wage of $2.13 an hour and requiring them to make up the difference in tips. Minnesota and other states have exercised their right to change this rule and to set the same minimum wage for tipped and non-tipped workers. Today's Senate passed bill preserves states' rights to decide how they want to handle the tip penalty.

"I voted today to raise the minimum wage for working families because it is fair and smart, and above all because it is right," said Klobuchar. "Our lowest paid workers have seen the purchasing power of their wages decline even as their health care, housing, education, and energy costs skyrocket, and it is long past time that we help them make ends meet. Now that both the House and the Senate have approved this wage increase, it is up to the conference committee, and then President Bush, to act quickly so that we can make this law."

Senator Klobuchar used one of her very first Senate floor speeches to emphasize the importance of increasing the minimum wage. Last week she said, "Lifting the minimum wage is the principled thing to do. . . It sends a signal that we as a community value hard work and that we insist on a fair deal for all Americans. This is a signal that the old leadership in Washington failed to send. With this bipartisan bill, we can tell our workers that we stand up for the hardworking people of America."