It has the support of most Americans, several Nobel Prize-winning economists and Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott.

"It" is a long-overdue increase in the federal minimum wage, which hasn't been raised since 1997, thanks to President Bush and congressional Republicans who have a well-deserved reputation as Santa Claus to the rich and Scrooge to the working poor.

If economic justice is served, the GOP logjam will be removed Jan. 4, when the Democrats take control of Congress.

One of incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's first acts should be to fast-track efforts to boost the pitifully low minimum of $5.15 an hour to at least the $7.25 level favored by U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and other Democrats. The increase might be phased in over two years or more.

Even if Congress adopted the increase in January and President Bush signed it into law, it would mark the longest period ever without an increase in the federal wage floor since the first minimum of 25 cents an hour was adopted with passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938.

My guess is that Bush would sign a minimum wage bill because it has overwhelming public support and because he has exercised only one veto in nearly six years as president. Vetoing the first minimum wage increase in more than nine years would further erode his already tattered standing as a "compassionate conservative."

The current $5.15 minimum has less buying power than any minimum wage since the 1950s, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank that focuses on working-class issues. Today's minimum would have to be jacked up to $7.44 to have the same buying power as the $3.35 minimum of 25 years ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation index.

Many Republicans and economists traditionally have argued against raising the minimum on the grounds that it would increase costs for businesses and force them to eliminate jobs for low- and moderate-income workers. But conditions generally improved for workers of modest means after the last federal minimum wage hike that took effect on Sept. 1, 1997.

Hundreds of economists, including five Nobel laureates, have endorsed this statement by EPI: "We believe that a modest increase in the minimum wage would improve the well-being of low-wage workers and would not have the adverse effects that critics have claimed."

The EPI statement said research has shown that most beneficiaries of a higher minimum wage would be adults, women and members of "low-income working families." That debunks the myth that most minimum-wage employees are teenagers or college students from prosperous families.

In August, the Bloomberg news service quoted Princeton University economics professor Alan Blinder, a former Federal Reserve vice chairman, as saying that his views on the minimum wage have "changed dramatically."

"The evidence appears to be against the simple-minded theory that a modest increase in the minimum wage causes substantial job loss," he said. Employers who raise wages might realize cost savings from attracting higher-quality employees, reduced job turnover and increased worker productivity resulting from improved morale, Blinder said.

Scott, the Wal-Mart CEO, has said he favors a higher minimum wage because it would help many low- and moderate-income customers by boosting their purchasing power.

The EPI has estimated that 14.9 million Americans, or about 11 percent of the U.S. workforce, would benefit from a minimum wage increase to $7.25. It not only would help those currently making less than $7.25 but also would put upward pressure on wages of those earning modestly above that level.

As a result of Congress' inaction, 28 states have increased minimum wages beyond $5.15. Voters in six states decisively approved higher minimums in the Nov. 7 elections. Polls show that a large majority of Americans, including many Republicans, favor a higher minimum.

It's time for Congress to hop on the bandwagon and substantially increase the federal minimum. Unlike the GOP, the new Democratic majority has the political will, sense of fairness and compassion to accomplish the task.

Jack Z. Smith is an editorial writer for the Fort Worth (Texas)Star-Telegram.