Low-wage Workers Are Older and Better Educated than Ever
By John Schmitt and Janelle Jones
Center for Economic and Policy Research
Relative to any of the most common benchmarks – the cost of living, the wages of the average worker, or average productivity levels – the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is well below its historical value. These usual reference points, however, understate the true erosion in the minimum wage in recent decades because the average low-wage worker today is both older and much better educated than the average low-wage worker was in the past.
Read more

Take Action in the States

Campaign Updates Coming Soon!

$10 Minimum Wage Campaign

Join us to break the cycle of too little, too late raises in the federal minimum wage.
Sign the Faith Leader Letter to Congress.
If you aren't a faith leader, please sign here.
Policy Points: Raise the Minimum Wage to $10.
Raising Minimum Wage in Hard Times.

The Minimum Wage Is Too Damn Low

By John Schmitt
Center for Economic and Policy Research, Mar 19 2012
By all of the most commonly used benchmarks – inflation, average wages, and productivity – the minimum wage is now far below its historical level. By all of these reference points, the value of the minimum wage peaked in 1968.

Should The Minimum Wage Be Raised?

By Patricia Smith
New York Times Upfront, Feb 20 2012
Excerpt: Holly Sklar of Let Justice Roll, a group working to raise the minimum wage, says that the decline in the value of those paychecks keeps the rest of the economy from flourishing.

"You can't really have a predominantly middle class country when you have so many people earning poverty wages," Sklar says. "It's really a drag on the overall economy."

Showing America's servers some love for Valentine's Day

Op-ed by By Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Md.) and Saru Jayaraman, co-founder, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
The Hill, Feb 13 2012
Last year, restaurants welcomed and served more than 70 million Americans celebrating Valentine’s Day, the nation’s second most popular holiday for the industry. Unfortunately, under the federal minimum wage for tipped employers, millions of restaurant workers, including waitresses and servers, are only making $2.13 per hour, a mere $4,430 per year.

Tipped Over the Edge - Gender Inequity in the Restaurant Industry

By Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United
Feb 13 2012
New report shows that women who work in the industry face systematic discrimination, poverty wages, a lack of sick days, and five times more harassment than the general female workforce. One major cause of poverty for these working women is that restaurant lobbyists have succeeded in keeping the federal minimum wage for servers and other tipped workers frozen at only $2.13 per hour for the past 20 years.

Findings in the report include the following:

Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC) National Diners' Guide 2012

New National Diners’ Guide from Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC) spotlights wage, benefits and promotion practices of the 150 most popular restaurants. Lists "responsible restaurants where you can eat knowing that your server can afford to pay the rent and your cook isn’t working while sick."

Download the Diners’ Guide, the Consumer Toolkit for Spreading the Word, and Tip Cards about the Diners’ Guide to hand out to restaurant owners and workers when you go out to eat.
Dec 1 2011
ROC National Diners’ Guide 2012

2011 American Values Survey: Widespread support for raising minimum wage to $10

By Public Religion Research Institute
Nov 8 2011
Overall, two-thirds (67%) of Americans favor increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.00 an hour.

CEOs to Workers: More for me, less for you

Op-ed by Holly Sklar
McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Jul 22 2011

Big company CEOs got a 23 percent raise last year and corporate profits are at record highs. But the minimum wage has less buying power now than in 1956 – the year Elvis Presley first topped the charts, videotape was breakthrough technology and the Dow closed above 500 for the very first time.

Raising Minimum Wage Does Not Increase Unemployment

Jun 1 2011
Read the Research Summaries by the National Employment Law Project or the Full Studies by Arindrajit Dube, William Lester and Michael Reich and by Sylvia Allegretto, Arindrajit Dube and Michael Reich.

Local Living Wage Ordinances and Coverage

See chart with summary of local living wage ordinances and links. Total: 123 as of 12/6/10, not including repealed.
Dec 6 2010
Local Living Wage Ordinances and Coverage
National Employment Law Project
Syndicate content
With over 100 member organizations, the nonpartisan Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign is the leading faith, community, labor, business coalition committed to raising the minimum wage to a living wage at the state and federal level.