Consider the Source: 100 Years of Broken-Record Opposition to the Minimum Wage
National Employment Law Project and Cry Wolf Project
In her Congressional testimony from 1959, Eleanor Roosevelt noted the repetitive quality of objections raised by minimum wage opponents over the previous five decades. More than 50 years later, it appears that nothing has changed.
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Take Action in the States

Will be updated shortly

$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.

Voters Approve Minimum Wage Increases in Albuquerque, San Jose, and Long Beach, CA

National Employment Law Project, Nov 7 2012

Albuquerque, San Jose, and Long Beach, CA passed ballot measures November 6 that will raise the minimum wage for workers in those cities. In San Jose, the minimum wage will increase from $8 per hour - the current minimum wage in California - to $10 per hour, and will adjust automatically in future years to keep pace with the rising cost of living. Albuquerque’s citywide minimum wage will rise from $7.50 to $8.50 per hour in January 2013, and will automatically adjust in future years with inflation.

Raise Minimum Wage To Raise America

Op-ed by Holly Sklar
McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Jul 24 2012
Time flies when you're moving backward. With the federal minimum wage stuck at $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009, workers now have less buying power than they did in 1997 at the start of the longest period in history without a raise.

It took 10 years, from 1997 until 2007, to raise the minimum wage above $5.15. A worker would need $7.36 today to match the buying power of the $5.15 minimum wage in 1997.

Low-wage Workers Are Older and Better Educated than Ever

By By John Schmitt and Janelle Jones
Center for Economic and Policy Research, Apr 30 2012
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.

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.

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

Raising the Minimum Wage in Hard Times

Updated / Summary
  • The federal minimum wage was enacted during the Great Depression to promote economic recovery.
  • The long-term fall in worker buying power is a key reason we are in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
  • Raising the minimum wage boosts consumer purchasing power and economic recovery.
  • Raising the minimum wage does not increase unemployment in good times or bad.
  • Raise the floor to lift the economy.
    • Holly Sklar
    Oct 27 2010
    application/pdf iconRaising Minimum Wage in Hard Times
    Let Justice Roll
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    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.