Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) called the second of three increases in the minimum wage “another step forward for economic fairness in our country.” The increase is a result of “The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007,” one of the first bills that Webb co-sponsored in the Senate.

More than 449,000 Virginia workers and two million nation-wide will benefit from the legislation, which raises the federal minimum wage from $5.15/hour to $6.55 per hour. Thursday’s 70-cent increase is the second of three annual increases since the legislation was enacted on July 24, 2007. The third increase, effective July 24, 2009, will bring the federal minimum to $7.25 an hour.

“This week, lower income Virginians will get a much needed increase in their paychecks to meet the demands of rising food and energy costs,” says Webb. “I am proud that this legislation was successful, at a time when the minimum wage had not been raised in ten years.”

Last week, the Labor Department reported the fastest inflation since 1991, five percent for June compared with a year earlier. Energy costs soared nearly 25 percent. The price of food rose more than five percent.

Facts on the minimum wage:

- A single parent working for minimum wage earns $12,100/year, $2,800 below the poverty line. Nearly 35 percent of minimum-wage workers are sole family earners and one in three Virginians earning the minimum wage are raising children.

- Between 1998 and 2004, the job growth for small businesses in states with a minimum wage higher than the federal level was 6.2 percent compared to a 4.1 percent growth in states where the federal level prevailed.