[NOW Actions] Urgent: Take Action on the Minimum Wage

Support NOW's Work |	January 4, 2007	| Tell a Friend

Action Needed Background All NOW Actions More on Economic Justice		Take Action on the Minimum Wage Our new leaders in Congress promise to raise the minimum wage. We need to help them keep this promise. TAKE ACTION NOW! This long overdue "raise" for our undervalued hourly-wage workers is scheduled for votes in the House and Senate soon in this new session. Because women make up nearly two-thirds of the minimum wage workforce and many are single parents attempting to "work" their way out of poverty, raising the minimum wage is a key initial step toward improving women's overall economic status. Action Needed: It is imperative that we contact our Senators and Representative immediately, with an email and a follow up phone call to their local, state or Washington D.C. offices. Women and men who are working hard to make ends meet, many working two jobs, deserve a "clean" bill that is not burdened by amendments designed to slow down or defeat an increased minimum wage. TAKE ACTION NOW! Background: RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE IS A MATTER OF FAIRNESS. Members of Congress have raised their own pay $31,000 over the past ten years, but have yet to raise the minimum wage a single cent over the same period. The number of people in poverty has increased by 4.3 million since 2001, the year that President Bush took office. Nearly 36 million people live in poverty, including 13 million children. Among full-time, year-round workers, poverty has doubled since the late 1970s from about 1.3 million workers then to more than 2.6 million workers today. An unacceptably low minimum wage is a key reason there are millions of working poor. MINIMUM WAGE EARNERS ARE NOT TEENAGERS IN AFTER-SCHOOL JOBS. Approximately 7.3 million workers currently are earning the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. Of these minimum-wage workers, 72% are adults and of these workers 61% are women. More than a third of those working at minimum wage care for children under the age of 18 and more than 700,000 of minimum-wage workers are single mothers. Three quarters of female minimum wage workers are at least 20 years old and 35% of them work full-time. ACTION IS NEEDED NOW. The minimum wage is not indexed for inflation and does not include an annual automatic cost of living raise. Congress is responsible for adjusting the minimum wage to keep up with inflation and to adjust to changes in the purchasing power of the dollar. When Congress fails to act minimum-wage workers continue to lose buying power. In today's economy the real value of the minimum wage is more than $3.50 below what it was in 1968. For workers to have the same purchasing power they had in 1968, the minimum wage would have to be $8.70 an hour, not $5.15. It is a travesty that a full-time worker earning minimum wage earns $10,712 - a figure that is more than $5,000 below the official federal poverty line for a family of three. Resources: Working Women Need an Increase in the Minimum Wage Federal Minimum Wage Remains Unchanged for Ninth Straight Year, Falls to Lowest Level in More than Half a Century Economic Policy Institute's Guide to the Minimum Wage An increase in the minimum wage is long overdue Minimum Wage by State AFL/CIO "America Needs a Raise" Take Action NOW!
SUPPORT NOW: Support NOW's Work for Equal Rights | Join NOW | Monthly Giving | Shop Online TAKE ACTION: Get Involved | Find Your Nearest Chapter | Tell a Friend | Learn More LISTS: Unsubscribe, Edit Profile | Subscribe | All Lists