Slow Progress for Fast-Food Workers
John Schmitt and Janelle Jones
Center for Economic and Policy Research
Most fast food workers are adults with a high school degree or more "which you would never guess from the way the industry pays." Timely new report on fast food pay and workforce composition from the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Read more

Take Action in the States

Will be updated shortly

Federal Minimum Wage Campaign

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

Minimum Wage Same for Four Years

Institute for Public Accuracy, Jul 24 2013

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the last increase in the federal minimum wage, on July 24, 2009. ...  Rev. Stephen Copley, Director of the Arkansas Interfaith Alliance and chair of the national nonpartisan Let Justice Roll Living Wage Coalition said: “It is immoral that the minimum wage is worth less, adjusted for inflation, than the over $10 value it had in 1968, the year the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in Memphis while fighting for living wages. We cannot wait another year.

No Matter How You Look At It, the Minimum Wage is Much Too Low

If the current minimum wage had kept up with inflation since its peak in 1968, the federal minimum wage would now be $10.75 an hour. And if the minimum wage had grown along with workers' productivity, it would be as high as $17.19 today. Also, today's low-wage workers are older and better educated than in the past.

Read Report:

Jul 23 2013
No Matter How You Look At It, the Minimum Wage is Much Too Low
Center for Economic and Policy Research

Consider the Source: 100 Years of Broken-Record Opposition to the Minimum Wage

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.
Mar 31 2013
Consider the Source: 100 Years of Broken-Record Opposition to the Minimum Wage
National Employment Law Project and Cry Wolf Project

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.

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
    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.