Moving a little closer to justice

Hopes of getting an increase to the piteously low federal minimum wage were dealt a serious blow a couple of weeks ago when the Senate's Parliamentarian ruled that it couldn't be included in the massive COVID-19 relief package now moving through Congress.

The announcement was widely expected, and the ruling from the strenuously nonpartisan arbiter threw a major roadblock into Congressional Democrats' path to raising the current federal minimum from $7.25 an hour, where it has sat since 2009, to $15 an hour by 2025.

But if there is a ray of hope here, it's that it now feels like a matter of when, not if, the government will move to lift millions of Americans out of poverty.