Minimum Wage
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) supports legislation to raise the minimum wage. Currently the federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. Representative George Miller (D-CA) and Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) have offered H.R. 2429/S. 1062, the “Fair Minimum Wage Act” to increase the minimum wage.
The current wage of $5.15 per hour ($10,700 a year for full-time workers) fails to provide enough income to enable minimum wage workers to afford basic necessities such as housing, medical care, and food. In fact, this is $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Raising the minimum wage by $2.10 per hour─an additional $4,368 a year─would help minimum wage earners support their families and provide economic relief to 7.3 million workers. Several states recognize the value of the federal minimum wage has been declining and have already taken steps to ensure the minimum wage in their states support working families.
The Fair Minimum Wage Act would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in three steps:
- $5.85 60 days after enactment
- $6.55 one year later
- $7.25 one year after that
Raising the minimum wage is critical to the livelihood of workers everywhere. An estimated 7.3 million workers (5.8% of the workforce) would receive an increase in their hourly wage rate if the minimum wage was increased. Of these workers, 72% are adults and 60.6% are women. Close to half work full time and another third work between 20 and 34 hours per week. More than one-third of the workers who would benefit from an increase are parents of children under the age of 18.
Today, the real value of the minimum wage is more than $3.50 below what it was in 1968. To have the purchasing power it had in 1968, the minimum wage would have to be $8.70 an hour today, not $5.15. Meanwhile, the last time the Congress voted to raise the minimum wage was in 1996. And since 1996, Congress has raised its own pay by $31,000.
Raising the minimum wage is critical to preserving the American dream: that if you work hard at your job, even if you are low-income, you will be able to lead a decent life. With many low-paid workers struggling to pay their bills and raise families it is critically important that this pay rise as high as possible and as soon as possible.
Every day the minimum wage is not increased, it continues to lose value and our lowest-wage earners continue to fall farther and farther behind. UFCW strongly urges Congress to increase the minimum wage now.
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