One-day strikes by fast-food workers this summer have highlighted the need to raise the minimum wage, which has been $7.25 since 2007. A Thursday editorial in The New York Times called the protests “a just cause.” Sen. Bernie Sanders also has congratulated the workers for speaking out against “starvation wages.” He is a cosponsor of legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, about what it would be if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation over the past 50 years. The effort to pass that legislation is running up against those in Congress who don’t just oppose raising the minimum wage. “This will shock you but this is the truth,” Sanders said. “They want to abolish the minimum wage.” During a recent Senate labor committee hearing, Sen. Lamar Alexander told Sanders he favors doing away with the minimum wage. He’s not alone. "I don’t think a minimum wage law works," Sen. Marco Rubio told CBS News earlier this year. Remarkably, 28 Republican senators went on record in 2007 and voted to abolish the minimum wage. Republican Party platforms in Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Oregon call for the minimum wage to be abolished.

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