The federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour hasn't risen in a decade. Slowly, a consensus is building that government should boost the minimum.

The pay of the average CEO at major American companies was $11.8 million in 2004, up from $2 million in 1990. If the minimum wage had risen that fast, hamburger-flippers and car-washers would now be earning $23.03 per hour, according to a calculation from the liberal-leaning Institute for Policy Studies.

The contrast illustrates a troubling trend in America through most of the past two decades. The wealthy are getting wealthier at an accelerating pace, while the rest of America is doing little better than treading water. It also shows the need to boost the pay of those on the bottom rung of the ladder. It's time to raise the minimum wage.

Slowly, a consensus is building that government should do just that. The other day, 52 U.S. senators voted to hike the minimum wage. It wasn't enough; 60 votes were needed. But a majority of the Senate is in favor of an increase for the first time in many years. Earlier this month, the House Appropriations Committee also voted for a hike in the minimum wage, although it's sure to be stripped out before the bill hits the House floor.

The federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour hasn't risen in a decade. What CEO — or middle-class worker, for that matter — would tolerate that? As a percent of the average American wage, the minimum wage is now at its lowest point since 1949.

The arguments for a higher minimum are both moral and practical. Our society, going back to the Puritans, has respected the dignity of work. But work at the minimum wage keeps families in poverty. With a full-time job, the minimum wage brings $10,700 a year. That's well below the poverty line of $15,000 for a mother with two children.

If we want children to live in homes where there is always heat, electricity, water and enough food, if we want families to eschew welfare and food pantries, to move from dependence to dignity, we must pay more than wages that do not cover the cost of the bare essentials.

Opponents argue that a higher minimum wage would cost jobs. But studies of previous minimum wage hikes demonstrate that the job loss is almost too small to measure.

The prime effect of raising the minimum wage is not job loss but an uptick in the income of low-wage workers. In fact, the Missouri Office of Administration estimates that a $6.50 minimum would raise wages paid to Missourians by $85.5 million per year by 2008. The effect extends to workers who already earn more than $6.50. Many employers now pay a bit above the minimum wage in order to attract and keep better workers. Raise the minimum, and those workers will get a raise, too.

That money has to come from somewhere. It might come partly from company profits or from slightly higher prices to consumers. We may pay a penny more for a hamburger so that the person frying it can buy her children school clothes and pay her utility bills, all of which keeps the economy going.

It's a price worth paying for the dignity that comes with self-sufficiency.