Hey, we scored BIG last week!

The National Day of Action calling on Members of Congress to sponsor the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 was a HUGE success. MomsRising and other partner organizations rallied over 240k people to sign letters to their U.S. House members to support the Fair Minimum Wage Act! Our voices were heard and more than 100 members of Congress signed onto the bill when it was introduced!

There is more information below.

----------- Forwarded Message -----------

Dear MomsRising Member,

Millions of workers – mostly women – struggle to make ends meet on the current minimum wage. At just $7.25 an hour, or roughly $15,080 per year, the current federal minimum wage hasn't been raised in THREE YEARS and is leaving working families in poverty. This week on "MomsRising Radio with Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner," we heard from experts and leaders along with the stories of working moms trying to raise families off of the outdated federal minimum wage (A link to listen to the podcast is below in the PS). We heard from moms like Margaret Lewis, a passenger transporter from Chicago who often works more than 65-70 hours per week.

“I have been on my job 11 years and I still make minimum wage… It’s really hard to survive off of Chicago's minimum wage ($8.25 per hour). As a mom, you can’t make ends meet...” - Margaret Lewis, IL

MomsRising joins ROC-United (the Restaurant Opportunities Center), National Women's Law Center (NWLC), CREDO Mobile, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and National Employment Law Project (NELP) in calling on U.S. House members to support the Fair Minimum Wage Act!

*Join us by telling your U.S. Representative to co-sponsor the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 to raise the outdated federal minimum wage:

http://action.momsrising.org/sign/raisethewage/?source=taf

The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 would gradually raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 per hour, increase the tipped minimum cash wage from $2.13 per hour to 70 percent of the minimum wage, and index the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation. Increasing the minimum wage and tipped minimum wage are key steps toward fair pay for women.

Raising the minimum wage isn't just good for women and families, it's good for our economy. You see, putting more money into the pockets of ordinary Americans would give a much-needed boost to our economy. What business in this country needs right now is customers--and the problem is that too many people aren’t making enough money to get by right now so consumer spending is down. If we reduce income inequality, then we will boost our economy, help small business grow, and create jobs.

And, importantly, people who work hard and play by the rules should be able to make a living wage; but too often that's not possible at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Here are the facts: [1]

***Women represent nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers.
***A woman working full-time, year round at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour earns just $15,080 – more than $3,000 below the poverty line for a family of three.
***The federal minimum cash wage for tipped workers has been $2.13 per hour for 20 years. Women are nearly two-thirds of workers in tipped occupations.
***Raising the minimum wage to $9.80 per hour would boost earnings for more than 28 million workers, nearly 55 percent of them women, and help close the wage gap between women and men.

We are gaining momentum thanks to the hundreds of thousands of people who petitioned their Senators to support Senator Tom Harkin's Rebuild America Act - Senate Bill 2252, which would raise the federal minimum wage. Now, Representative George Miller just introduced parallel legislation on the House side that increases the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 by 2014 then indexes it to inflation thereafter. He has asked his colleagues in the House to co-sponsor the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012.

*The last time the federal minimum wage was raised was THREE YEARS AGO! Tell your Representative to co-sponsor the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 to raise the outdated federal minimum wage.

http://action.momsrising.org/sign/raisethewage/?source=taf

The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 is significant for a number of reasons. It will index the minimum wage so that it automatically increases every year, giving workers a raise they can count on without having to wait for Congress to act. At a time when corporate profit margins in the U.S. economy are at an all-time high, employees' wages as a percent of the economy have hit an all-time low.[2]

When families get a boost, the economy does too! According to a recent study, disproportionate numbers of new jobs created in the current economic climate are jobs that pay by the hour, and many of the fastest growing types of jobs pay well below $10 per hour. [3] With the economy still struggling, Congress needs to use every tool available to ensure the quality of new jobs created, so that we have a meaningful recovery — and nothing will have greater impact than increasing the minimum wage for all workers.

*Tell your Representative: Co-sponsor the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 to raise the minimum wage and boost the economy.

http://action.momsrising.org/sign/raisethewage/?source=taf

The Fair Minimum Wage Act also remedies an injustice that has persisted for decades — the freezing of the minimum wage for tipped workers. Over the course of five years, it would raise the tipped minimum wage to 70% of the federal minimum wage and thereafter, index it as well. This is of particular importance for women workers who make up a disproportionate part of not just the low-wage work force, but the tipped workforce as well. [4] Thus, raising the minimum wage, especially the tipped minimum wage, is an essential component of the ongoing fight to close the wage gap.

Together, we are a strong force for women and families.

– Monifa, Claire, Gloria and the whole MomsRising.org Team

PS: This week on "MomsRising Radio with Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner," our partners at ROC - United, NWLC and SEIU join a lively conversation that also includes moms trying to get by raising kids on low wages to talk about that fact that while CEO pay has sky-rocketed by 725% over the last 30 years, the minimum wage at $7.25 per hour hasn't kept up with inflation. Listen ANYTIME on iTunes here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/moms-rising-radio/id533519537

1 - National Women's Law Center: http://www.nwlc.org/our-resources/fact-sheets

2 - Business Insider, June 2012: http://www.businessinsider.com/corporate-profits-just-hit-an-all-time-high-wages-just-hit-an-all-time-low-2012-6

3 - National Employment Law Project: http://www.nelp.org/page/-/Justice/2010/WhereTheJobsAreAugust2010.pdf?nocdn=1

4 - ROC-United: http://rocunited.org/tipped-over-the-edge-gender-inequity-in-the-restaurant-industry