From the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/):
EPI has provided the facts and figures for successful minimum wage campaigns in cities and states across the country, from New York City to Minneapolis to Seattle. Over the last five years, we’ve provided critical support in 30 successful state and local minimum wage campaigns. And now’s our chance to bring this fight to Congress.
This week, Reps. Bobby Scott, Stephanie Murphy and Mark Pocan introduced the “Raise the Wage Act of 2019”, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. In 2017, EPI estimated that this would directly or indirectly lift the wages of 41.5 million working people―29.2 percent of the wage-earning workforce. This will generate $144 billion in additional income for families who need it most, including 23.1 million women and 4.5 million single parents.
Today, Fight for $15 striker Tiffany Lowe from Memphis, Tennessee said at the introduction of the bill:
“Today, I am joined by underpaid workers from across the country to say that everyone who works—no matter where they’re from—everyone deserves to be paid enough to lead a decent life and provide for their family. It was unbelievable six years ago that 200 fast food workers in New York would walk off the job for $15 and a union and walk back into their shops. Now the demand for $15 has grown into an undeniable movement of underpaid workers. By sticking together and acting like a union, workers in the Fight for $15 completely changed what’s possible, and made $15 an hour the new baseline for decent pay in America.”
“No matter where we live, no matter our race, religion, or background, we are ALL worth more.”
Go to https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/raise-the-wage-3/ to stand with the EPI Policy Center and our partners and become a co-signer of the “Raise the Wage Act of 2019” and call on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
At $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage is now more than 25 percent below where it was in real terms half a century ago. And because of policymakers’ failure to preserve the minimum wage as one of the country’s most basic labor protections, a single parent working full-time at today’s federal minimum wage is paid less than the federal poverty line.
But there’s more! After phasing in the minimum wage increase to $15 by 2024, the bill would then index the minimum wage to match changes in the national median wage, and would phase out the “tipped minimum wage” of $2.13 per hour.
EPI research shows that tipped minimum wage workers are better off in cities and states where they are paid the full minimum wage—and the restaurant industry in those places continues to thrive.
Join us and our partners and become a co-signer of the “Raise the Wage Act of 2019” today!
With a newly sworn-in Congress, now is our chance to pass a $15 minimum wage in the U.S. House and begin to implement our progressive economic agenda for the working families of this country.
Leave a Reply