As of Friday, it’s been nine long years since the federal minimum wage was raised.

If the hourly wage still hasn’t been boosted by year’s end, it will mark the longest time the nation has gone without elevating the federal pay floor since the first minimum – 25 cents an hour – was adopted nearly 70 years ago under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

No one should be surprised that the current minimum remains stuck at the unconscionably low rate of $5.15 per hour that took effect Sept. 1, 1997. President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have maintained a rigid ideological hostility toward raising the minimum, despite their hot air about compassionate conservatism.

The GOP appears willing to increase the minimum only is if it is packaged with some other measure – such as repealing or greatly reducing the estate tax – that predominantly benefits the wealthy or some other favored Republican constituency. That’s a bogus approach: A congressional vote on raising the minimum should be separate from other issues.

As we enter the Labor Day weekend, Bush is continuing to chirp about how gloriously the U.S. economy is doing. But U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday show that most Americans are seeing little or no gain in real, inflation-adjusted income. A record-high 46.6 million Americans lack health insurance. The poverty rate of 12.6 percent is higher than when Bush took office.

Workers at the lower end of the wage scale are particularly hurting. The $5.15 minimum would need to be raised to $6.53 immediately just to provide the same buying power that it did when it was adopted nine years ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The $5.15 wage provides less purchasing power than the federal minimum has at any time since the 1950s, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank supported by organized labor.

U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., has proposed to raise the minimum to $7.25 over a period of more than two years. How could anyone begrudge paying such a modest wage to someone working to put food on the table and pay the rent?

Although the do-nothing Congress has predictably done nothing about raising the minimum, many states aren’t sitting still. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have raised their minimums above the federal level, EPI said on Aug. 25. Additional states appear likely to adopt higher minimums in the November elections or beyond.

National polls reveal overwhelming public support for raising the minimum. A Pew Research Center survey in April showed that 83 percent (including 72 percent of Republicans) favored raising it to $7.15.

Boosting the minimum by $2 not only would benefit those currently earning at or near $5.15 but also would put upward pressure on the wages of many other workers making less than $10 an hour.

A higher minimum would help working-class families and individuals afford better-quality, more healthful food. It could help them pay for car insurance and medical bills. It could help them cope with electric bills and gasoline costs that have skyrocketed as a result of record energy prices. It would provide many families greater dignity and pride by allowing them to eliminate or reduce their reliance on tax-supported government social services.

If you’re a middle-class or upper-class income earner, pause a minute on Labor Day to think just how fortunate you are to enjoy a level of compensation that doesn’t leave you wondering every month whether you’ll be able to pay the bills. And show a little compassion for less-blessed workers by supporting a long-overdue increase in the minimum wage.