The House voted yesterday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, the New York Times reported. The bill would more than double the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour — about $15,000 a year for someone working 40 hours a week, or about $10,000 less than the federal poverty level for a family of four. It has not been raised since 2009, the longest time the country has gone without a minimum-wage increase since it was established 1938. The measure, which passed largely along party lines, 231-199, after Republicans branded it a jobs-killer, faces a blockade in the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he will not take it up. Only three Republicans voted for it, while six Democrats opposed it.
