This holiday - and this campaign season - are a good time to remind New York's representatives in Washington that raising the federal minimum wage must be a top a priority.

As New York moves closer to the final phase of its minimum wage hike, going from $6.75 per hour to $7.15 per hour at the beginning of 2007, many states bordering it or in the same region of the country continue to use the federal $5.15 rate as their minimum.

And though we supported the New York Legislature's decision to move beyond that level, we also recognized that the ideal solution was a federal increase - something that would even the playing field from state to state. So once New York did bump its minimum higher, every member of the New York delegation should have been screaming for the same changes nationwide.

Two years ago, the likelihood of such a move on the federal level seemed remote. But times have changed, both politically and economically, and this fall's elections could play a crucial role in the future of the federal minimum wage.

We want to hear, in very plain language, where each of the candidates running for Congress stand on this issue.

Our reasons for supporting an increase remain the same. As costs continue to rise for just about every basic good and service, at some point the minimum wage needs to catch up. That point has been here for quite some time in the United States.

One crucial concern about such a hike is that it could hurt small businesses that may employ people making minimum or a few dollars above minimum wage. That's why an increase should also include some form of assistance for businesses that need it, but it's important that such a program is not helping the employers, such as major retail chains, that clearly can absorb the costs of bringing their workers closer to pay that actually allows them to make a living.

Ultimately, this nation's failure to raise the minimum wage will begin to cost us all more. The effective efforts to get people into jobs and off social assistance programs of the past decade could quickly unravel if the jobs aren't allowing people to pay their bills or feed their children.