The Good News:

With the start of 2023, Washington D.C. and 23 states raised their minimum wages, many of them automatically as a result of having previously tied the minimum wage to the cost of living -- proving to Congress and the other states that such a simple, long-lasting solution is possible.

Click here to tell your state to create a $15 minimum wage and set it to increase with the cost of living.

The Bad News:

Only three states (Washington, California, and Massachusetts) and Washington D.C. now have minimum wages of $15 or more (as do federal workers and some state workers and contractors). The federal minimum wage -- which is all that many states have, and to which some other states' minimum wages are tied -- has now gone the longest period of time without correction since it was created in 1938, and is worth less than it has been since 1956.

The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour would be $12.12 if the law had built in adjustment for inflation in 1968. If the federal minimum wage had kept pace with productivity, it would now be over $26 per hour. If it had been tied to a percentage of a maximum wage and increased in line with the increase in top incomes, it would be way higher than $26.

Click here to email your state legislators and governor to create a $15 minimum wage and set it to increase with the cost of living.

The Ugly News:

Among those workers excluded even from the generally shrinking minimum wage are those for whom a much lower minimum wage is set because their job often involves tips. Some states require restaurant workers to pay $15 each for an online food safety class (where they receive such cutting-edge lessons as "bathe daily"), with part of the funding going to the National Restaurant Association, which lobbies governments to keep wages low. For decades the National Restaurant Association has been a leading generator of false claims that minimum wages harm workers or the economy. Thus people are compelled to fund the corruption of their government and public discourse to impoverish themselves. (See Background below.)

Enough is enough. Click here to tell your state to create a $15 minimum wage and set it to increase with the cost of living.

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-- The RootsAction.org team

Background:
>> Economic Policy Institute: "The value of the federal minimum wage is at its lowest point in 66 years"
>> CBS News: "Minimum wage would be $26 an hour if it had grown in line with productivity"
>> Economic Policy Institute: "More than 8 million workers wil get a raise on New Year's Day"
>> New York Times: "How Restaurant Workers Help Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low"

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