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We Need A Minimum Wage Increase!
Final signature count: 4,345
4,345 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Hunger Site
An hour's pay doesn't even cover a gallon of gas. Raising the minimum wage could save millions from falling into poverty.
Inflation is crushing Americans. Gas prices and grocery costs are skyrocketing and everyday families are bearing the brunt of a disastrous financial situation. Millions of people worldwide are on the brink of poverty.
Meanwhile. the federal minimum wage has not been raised since the Bush Administration1.
If the minimum wage had kept up with productivity, it would be $24 an hour today. By 2025, it would be almost $30. But wages haven’t kept up with productivity, and the minimum wage is currently stuck at $7.25 while the costs of living like rent, healthcare, food, and more have skyrocketed2.
Currently, the federal minimum wage can hardly pay for the cost of a single gallon of gasoline in the United States3.
Past campaigns have held that a low-wage worker needs at least $15 an hour to cover basic living costs anywhere in the United States. But even the “Fight for 15” is becoming rapidly irrelevant, as $15 is no longer sufficient for people to comfortably survive in this country4.
While wages are kept low, wealth that should go to workers is redistributed to CEOs, and income inequality surges5.
Raising the minimum wage would affect 32 million workers6. Many of these workers have been putting their lives at risk on the front lines of the pandemic. They worked hard and risked their lives for little reward.
Federally, the minimum wage in the U.S. is just $7.25, less than the cost of a gallon of gasoline7, and too low for anyone to afford rent in a single state in the country8. During a time of record profits for billionaires and multinational corporations, there is literally no reason that workers are still making poverty wages9.
According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, the minimum wage does not provide a living wage for most American families. Before pandemic pressures drove the economy into a tailspin, a living wage in the United States was $16.54 per hour, or $68,808 per year, before taxes for a family of four, compared to $16.14 in 2018. In 2021, the living wage rose to $24.16 per hour, or $100,498.60 before taxes for a family of four10.
Help us ask federal legislators to act quickly to prevent more people from slipping below the poverty line. Sign the petition and ask Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $24 an hour!
