By Jesse Russell

Last week a majority of Republicans in the Senate voted down an attempt by Democrats to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour by the year 2009. Just weeks before lawmakers in the House voted to raise their own salaries by 2 percent - increasing their pay to $168,500 a year. In 2004 the average household income in the United States was just under $45,000.

The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 per hour for nine years - only 21 states have a state minimum wage higher then the federal.

During the floor debate over increasing the minimum wage Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts called congress giving itself a raise while ignoring working Americans "obscene."

[Kennedy]: Nine years they've waited. But not the members of the United States Senate. Thirty thousand dollars we've increased our salary and nine years we've refused to provide an increase for the men and women who are working on the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

North Dakota is one state that pays workers according to the federal minimum wage. Rick Pfenning with the Missouri Slope Central Labor Council in the state said a recent study of workers in that state showed raising the minimum wage as the second biggest concern:

[Pfenning]: It seems strange that Congress would not pass this since they have given themselves raises over the past ten years of close to $32,000.

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd said no family should be expected to live on a salary of less than $11,000 a year:

[Dodd]: That's what you get with $5.15. I don't know of anyone who believes that you can meet your obligations of housing, of food, of medical care you may need.