2008 Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards became the first national figure to back a minimum wage of over $9 an hour yesterday, when he proposed that the federal minimum wage, now scheduled to hit $7.25 in 2009, go to $8.00 in 2010, $8.75 in 2011, $9.50 in 2012, and be adjusted according to the cost of living increase thereafter.

His proposal is close to my proposal, first made a year ago, that my proposal that the Pennsylvania minimum wage, now at $7.15, go to $8.15 in 2008, $8.75 in 2009, $9.35 in 2010, and be adjusted according to the cost of living increase thereafter. Assuming a 3% cost of living increase in 2010 and 2011, the effect of my proposal would be a Pennsylvania minimum age of $9.63 in 2011 and $9.92 in 2012.

Both the Edwards proposal and my proposal can--depending on the rate of inflation--get a full-time minimum wage worker with two dependents slightly above the poverty level. This would be the first time since the Reagan Administration that this would occur.

My strong hope is that other Democratic Presidential candidates and leading members of Congress, governors and state legislators, would follow Edwards' lead and start pushing meaningful minimum wage increases. The recent Congressional raise to $7.25 was much better than doing nothing, but it affected most minimum wage workers only slightly if at all because of the vigorous action by many state governments.

Vigorous leadership from high-ranking Democrats, coupled with vigorous leadership from labor, community groups, and the netroots, can create the higher living standards and the infusion of more money into the economy and the Social Security system that is strongly in the interest of all Americans.