There is an unprecedented
opportunity for Americans to stand together to increase the minimum wage efforts
and let all Congressmen know it is the right thing to do – economically and
morally.
Use this to call U.S.
Congressmen/women offices directly by this link: http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/
Research shows raising the minimum
wage will force an above-average job growth with little to no impact on states and
three Democratic Congressmen introduced a bill to raise it Wednesday.
The last minimum wage increase was in 2007, when Congress raised
the rate in steps from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour in July 2009, according
to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), instituted in 1938.
In the past year, minimum wage workers have protested all over
the country, starting with a supermarket walk out in Boston in 2012, and
McDonald’s employees demanding a $15 an hour increase for the past six months.
It seems some members of Congress may be listening.
Sen. Bernie Sanders
(I-VT) and Reps. Keith Ellison (MN), Raúl Grijalva (AZ), introduced the bill that
will be phased in by 2020, and wouldn’t be law across the land, with states having
an option setting their own wage increases.
In 2013, President Barrack
Obama requested an increase to $9 an hour. A month later lawmakers introduced a
bill to raise it to $10.20, and bill earlier this year a bill was introduced
with a $12 rate by 2020.
Of course, led by
Republican leadership, who vowed to stop any Democratic bills, they have stalled
every effort for an increase since President George W. Bush was in office.
The cities of San
Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles passed increases to $15 an hour, and
Emeryville, Calif. passed a $16 wage. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) recommended
a $15 minimum wage for fast food workers Wednesday.
All I can say is IT’S ABOUT
TIME for our Congress to pass a bill that people are literally crying out for
which would raise their annual salaries to about $30,000 a year – finally above
the poverty level!
