WASHINGTON, July 28 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., says he will lead a fight on Capitol Hill to raise the nation's minimum wage to $9.50 an hour in 2009.
Kennedy was one of the original sponsors of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which took effect Tuesday, raising the federal minimum to $5.85 an hour from $5.15. That will increase to $6.55 an hour next year and $7.25 in 2009 under the current law.
The Wage Act of 2007 was the first increase in the minimum wage in 10 years, CNN reported.
Kennedy's office said $9.50 an hour is just half of what the average worker needs to earn in the United States, given current costs of housing, food, clothing, medical care, and utilities.
Economist Chris Edwards of the Libertarian Cato Institute dismissed the notion of an additional wage hike saying "free-market Republicans" never should have agreed to the 2007 hike.
"The Bush administration thought, 'Oh we'll get this off the table,' but the Ted Kennedys always come back for more," Edwards said.
