Thanks to an overwhelming House vote, hundreds of thousands of minimum wage workers in the United States have been scheduled for their first raise in nine years. Jesse Russell reports:

While there was plenty of opposition to raising the federal minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour over a period of 26 months - most house members acknowledged that an increase was overdue. Republican Representative Zack Wamp of Tennessee said he would have preferred the wage bill to pass with two amendments - one for a repeal of the estate tax and a second that would offer associated health plans for small businesses. But he said due to the failures of corporate leadership in the United States the House needed to act:

[Wamp]: Nine years without a minimum wage increase is a problem. Especially since over those last nine years corporate leadership has let us down time and time again not honoring the tradition of responsibility to their workers and their stockholders.

Democratic Representative Corrine Brown of Florida said raising the minimum wage was a moral issue:

[Brown]: Helping the poor is a theme that is stressed throughout the Bible. But it is our responsibility as members of Congress to help raise the standard.