Time for a Raise

Four years ago today, minimum wage workers across the country got a raise. The federal minimum wage rose to $7.25 per hour, the last step of a three-step increase that started in 2007, when the minimum wage was just $5.15 per hour, and completed in 2009. That wasn’t a lot of money in 2009 and it’s even less today—$7.25 won’t quite cover two gallons of gas. (According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, regular unleaded was $3.633 per gallon in June of 2013, and last year hit $3.927). A woman working full time, year round at $7.25 per hour only makes $14,500 per year, barely above the poverty line for a single woman and thousands of dollars below the poverty line for a single mom with two children.  

Communities around the country have recognized that $7.25 per hour is not enough. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have state minimum wages above the federal level , and next year, New York will join their ranks. These states are also helping to narrow the wage gap: on average, states with minimum wages above the federal level have wage gaps that are 14% smaller [PDF] than those at the federal minimum wage. Still, in all states, a mom with two kids who works full time at minimum wage will be at or below the federal poverty line. Since July 2009, the country re-elected President Obama, pulled out of war with Iraq, watched as Harry Potter and Hermione grew up, and stood by as the average compensation of CEOs rose 37.4 percent to a whopping $14.1 million dollars —all while the federal minimum wage has stagnated at $7.25 per hour. Mind you that the odds that a Fortune 500 CEO is a woman are about four in 100—while the odds that a minimum wage worker is a woman are two out of three.

Today, people from around the country, from Baltimore to Duluth, Minnesota, to Seattle and places in between, are calling for a higher federal minimum wage. A new poll released Wednesday finds that 80 percent of Americans – including 62 percent of Republicans and 80 percent of Independents – support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and indexing it to the cost of living as proposed in the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013. This proposed legislation would boost the incomes of over 30 million workers, 17 million of them women. Raising the minimum wage would also narrow the wage gap [PDF].

Please join us in telling Congress that it’s high time we give minimum wage workers a much-needed, well-deserved, and long-awaited raise. Sign our petition here.