Home

Home
Senate to Vote Soon on Minimum Wage Increase

Six years of Bush economics have created an economy where the wealthiest enjoy unprecedented prosperity while the rest of us lose ground. The House of Representatives has voted to take the first step in turning this around by increasing the Federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour. Now that bill is before the Senate. Use this form to tell your Senator to vote YES on increasing the minimum wage.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Raise the Minimum Wage

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

It's been nearly a decade since the minimum wage was last increased. $5.15 an hour isn't much to begin with -- and thanks to a decade's worth of inflation, it buys about 20% less than it did when first set there. That's unfair any way you look at it.

You can do something about that by voting to increase the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. In the last Congress, proposals to increase the minimum wage got tied up in pointless political games, which kept them from passing.

You have the opportunity to demonstrate that the days of business as usual are over. Please follow the lead of the House of Representatives and pass a clean minimum wage bill. To get a modest hike in wages, the Senate should not agree to cutbacks in workers' rights, tax breaks for business, or any other unrelated proposals to benefit special interests.

I urge you to vote "yes" on this measure that is so important to millions of American working families.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
December 22, 2006


Background Information

A Paycheck that Supports a Family

For working families in America, the size of their members' paychecks determines their income and quality of life. After decades of decline, average wages began to pick up in the late 1990s only to hit a wall in 2000. Six years later wage growth is still stalled.

The reason for this decline are several--but can be boiled down to unbridled pro-corporate globalization, and the right-wing attack on unions and workplace and job market protections.

The first step to reverse the declining standard of living of workers in America and restore the American Dream is for Congress to raise the minimum wage. It should be a first act of Congress to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour; future annual increases should be tied to inflation to take politics out of this basic need.
Powered by image