ACTION ALERT – Help Lift Women and People of Color out of Poverty!

Call Your Senators about the Minimum Wage bill, S-02.

According to the Washington Post, inflation has depleted the value of the minimum wage to the lowest level in more than 50 years. The House passed a minimum wage bill on a vote of 315 – 116. Now the Senate is about to take up the bill. But some in the Senate want to add other provisions to the bill that would create extra breaks for businesses. Please call today to ask your Senator to pass a clean minimum wage bill with no other riders.

Currently, a minimum wage worker who works 40 hours a week every week of the year earns only $10,700 -- barely enough to keep a single person above the federal poverty line. And working 60 hours a week without taking any time off still isn’t enough to keep a family of three out of poverty.

According to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights:

Women and people of color make up a disproportionate percentage of minimum wage earners: overall, 40 percent of minimum wage earners are people of color. In fact:

• 59 percent of minimum wage workers are women;
  
• 16 percent are African-American, though African-Americans make up only 11 percent of the workforce; and
  
• 19 percent are Hispanic, though Hispanics make up only 14 percent of the workforce.

Take action! Call your Senators today. Tell your Senators to support a “clean version” of the minimum wage bill.