Yesterday the Seattle-based Marguerite Casey Foundation released a national survey that underscored what we all know intuitively: If you are a low-wage worker in our country, you are living on the edge.

More than half of low-income families are not able to fully pay their bills each month, and 39 percent of families just above the poverty level are falling behind.

Nine out of 10 families surveyed thought that poverty was aided and abetted by the low level of the minimum wage, and that one of the best ways to eradicate poverty was to increase the minimum wage, that is, pay people a little more.

That’s the conclusion that Washington voters arrived at seven years ago, when they overwhelmingly passed the minimum wage initiative by a 2-to-1 margin.

For the first time in our country, the minimum wage was tied to inflation, so that minimum wage workers could catch up with price increases with a cost-of-living adjustment every January. So on Jan. 1, when the minimum wage will be $7.63 an hour, Washington citizens can take pride in the fact that we have the best minimum wage in the country.

Mind you, it was a lot higher in terms of purchasing power in 1968. Back then, Congress would periodically raise the minimum wage to keep up with inflation and with productivity.

If our minimum wage had just kept up with inflation, it would now be closer to $9 an hour. And if it had kept up with productivity, it would be closer to $18 an hour. But when Ronald Reagan took office, the periodic increases came to a halt and the federal minimum wage plummeted in its purchasing power. It was stuck at $3.35 an hour until 1990. The last boost, to $5.15 an hour, was eight years ago.

When the federal government balked, Washington took the lead by raising the state’s minimum wage and indexing it to inflation. As a result, the minimum wage is no longer a political football, employers can factor in predictable wage costs when planning and employees know that their compensation will keep up with inflation.

Washington is the model for minimum wage standards that other states are following. In 2003, Oregon citizens voted to raise their minimum wage and link it to inflation. In 2004, Floridians – at the same time they voted for President Bush – overwhelmingly approved a measure to increase their minimum wage and tie it to inflation. And the same thing happened in Nevada. Now 16 states have set their minimum wages above the federal level.

Is this good? You bet it is. Too often workers are at a significant disadvantage when seeking compensation. Individually, they hold the short end of the stick in the employer/employee relationship. That means they can be taken advantage of by low-road employers more intent on making a quick buck than in developing long-term stability and growth.

More than 250,000 workers in our state earn low wages (that is, wages either at the minimum or up to a dollar above the minimum). Who are these workers? The vast majority are adults. More than 80 percent work more than half time, with close to half working full time.

A lot of these workers find themselves in the same straits as Robin Boland’s family in Seattle. Both parents work. They have one child. They work at a health clinic and made $27,000 last year. Ironically, the husband has gone without health insurance to make ends meet.

And all of us can sympathize with the mom in Clark County working for a fast-food chain making the minimum wage who has to pay for rent, diapers and formula on $7.35 an hour, hoping that there is a little left so she and her husband can eat.

Opponents of the minimum wage, such as the restaurant lobby, always say that it will shrink jobs. But the facts don’t bear them out.

Even during the 2002-2003 recession, while manufacturing jobs were hemorrhaging out of the state and all industries lost 49,000 jobs, the restaurant industry, in whi ch minimum wage jobs are concentrated, added 2,500 jobs.

When you do the numbers, ensuring that the minimum wage keeps up with inflation makes economic sense. Do we want low-wage jobs that generate poverty? Or do we want a decent minimum wage?

In Washington, the voters chose decency, and we all are benefiting.

John Burbank, executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute (www.eoionline.org), writes every other Wednesday. Write to him in care of the institute at 1900 Northlake Way, Suite 237, Seattle, WA 98103. His e-mail address is john@eoionline.org.