With $10.10

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On 10/10, 10 Facts About A $10.10 Minimum Wage

—by CAP Action War Room

RaiseTheMinimumWageAFriday, October 10th, was National Minimum Wage Day in honor of the efforts by progressives to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. At $7.25 an hour, today’s minimum wage is worth 30 percent less than the $1.60 minimum wage of 1968. It has been five years since the last increase in the federal minimum wage and nearly three-quarters of Americans support an increase, yet we have seen no progress. Just this morning four former Republican US Representatives announced their support for an increase in the federal minimum wage. The article begins, “When the cost of living goes up, so should wages. It’s common sense.”

Despite the fact that 22 previous increases in the minimum wage have passed through Congress with bipartisan support, Republicans in Congress have tied the issue up in partisan politics, ignoring the needs of their hard working constituents.

To continue with the theme, we’ve put together 10 key facts you should know about raising the minimum wage.

  1. Raising the minimum wage would allow 28 million American workers to see their wages increase by a total of $35 billion.
  2.  A $10.10 minimum wage would lift approximately 4.6 million workers out of poverty.
  3. The country’s GDP would increase by $22 billion over the phase-in period of the increased wage.
  4. Over that same period approximately 85,000 jobs would be created.
  5. Six million working mothers would see their wages increase and 14 million American children would see an increase in their family’s income.
  6. Since the last increase in the minimum wage, prices have skyrocketed: groceries are 20 percent more expensive, a gallon of gas is 25 percent more expensive and tuition at a community college is 44 percent more expensive than it was in 2009 at the time of the last increase.
  7. Federal spending on poverty programs, specifically spending on SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) would decrease by $4.6 billion a year.
  8. Sixty percent of business owners agree that the federal minimum wage should be increased, and 82 percent of business owners already pay their workers above the minimum wage.
  9. More than 600 economists, including seven Nobel Prize winners support raising the minimum wage and argue that it has little to no effect on business.
  10. Seventy three percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage to $10.10.

BOTTOM LINE: Raising the minimum wage isn’t just good for workers who earn the minimum wage, it’s good for the American economy. What minimum wage workers need—what the American economy needs—is for lawmakers to put aside partisan politics and get behind creating an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few. The answer is simple: give hard working Americans a wage they can live on. Raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10.

This material [the article above] was created by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. It was created for the Progress Report, the daily e-mail publication of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Click here to subscribe.