For the past decade, trickle-down politicians have fought tooth and nail to keep the federal minimum wage stuck at $7.25 an hour. Fat cat corporations and greedy zillionaires would rather deny working people a fair wage than give up a little bit of the profits generated by working people. To justify their efforts, trickle-downers predict doomsday scenarios where giving people a fair wage destroys the economy and kills jobs. That's a load of bunk.

In Seattle, we led the nation in raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour (it's even $16.39 an hour now!). While our grassroots organization was fighting for $15, trickle-downers warned that raising the minimum wage would destroy Seattle's economy and lead to massive layoffs. Now, five years later, Seattle's economy is thriving, and Washington state (which also raised the minimum wage) has the best economy in the country, because when working people earn a fair wage they spend more in their communities.

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It's time for the rest of the country to follow suit, but we need your support to make that happen. We're demanding that Congress take action to raise the minimum wage, but we need you fighting with us right now: Will you add your name to our petition and demand Congress raise the minimum wage?

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When working people are paid a living wage, they invest that money back into their local economies, helping businesses thrive and creating new jobs. In the cities and states that have adopted a $15 minimum wage, paychecks for more than 22 million working people increased more than $68 BILLION, while unemployment has declined. That's a whole lot of money for local economies.

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In fact, a recent report examining state-level minimum wage changes between 1979 and 2016 found that "the overall number of low-wage jobs remained essentially unchanged over five years following the increase," and that "the direct effect of the minimum wage on average earnings was amplified by modest wage spillovers at the bottom of the wage distribution." In other words, minimum wage increases did not kill jobs, and workers who previously earned more than the minimum wage also saw their own wages increase.

With too many working people struggling to make ends meet, it's clear that raising the minimum wage will be a net benefit for tens of millions of Americans. That's why we need to hold our elected officials accountable and demand Congress raise the minimum wage: Please, will you add your name to our petition and demand Congress raise the minimum wage?

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Thanks for taking action,

Paul Constant
Civic Action



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