One of this year’s most popular holiday toys—the $120 Roboraptor—would cost a parent earning the minimum wage three days’ wages, said congressional backers of an increased minimum wage at a news conference Dec. 14 in front of the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree. The federal minimum wage has been $5.15 an hour since 1997 and congressional Republicans have blocked repeated attempts to increase the wage, most recently in October. "If we value the Christmas tree, the menorah, the crescent, it’s the very least we ought to do," said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Two bills (H.R. 2429 and S. 1062) would increase the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour over two years. Meanwhile, union, community and religious activists in several states are mobilizing to boost their state’s minimum wage. Arizona and Arkansas activists are working to put wage increases on next November’s ballot. In New Mexico, a broad coalition of groups is gearing up to win support in the 2006 legislature for a bill to raise that state’s minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.50 an hour, said Christine Trujillo, president of the New Mexico Federation of Labor.