John,

Families are struggling to afford the basics. Rent, groceries, utilities, health care, child care, and other necessities keep getting more expensive, while the federal minimum wage remains frozen at just $7.25 an hour, where it has been since 2009.¹

For tipped workers, the subminimum wage has been stuck at $2.13 an hour since 1991.²

This creates impossible choices every month for people with the lowest incomes. Pay the rent or the utility bill. Buy groceries or fill a prescription. Cover child care or fall behind somewhere else.

Congress can help ease that pressure by finally raising the federal minimum wage.

This Labor Day, tell Congress to pass the Raise the Wage Act and give millions of workers a critically needed raise.

The Raise the Wage Act of 2025 would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour by 2030 and phase out lower subminimum wages for tipped employees, workers with disabilities, and young workers.

Roughly 22 million people would receive higher wages under the bill.³ More than half of workers living in poverty would benefit, putting billions of additional dollars into household budgets that can be used for food, housing, health care, utilities, and other basic needs.

People should not be expected to survive on a federal wage floor Congress set 17 years ago. At a time when millions of households are already struggling to make ends meet, lawmakers should be doing everything they can to strengthen economic security and reduce hardship.

This Labor Day, Congress should do more than praise the contributions people make to our communities. Lawmakers should take action to ensure that a job provides enough income to help families meet their basic needs.

Click here to tell your members of Congress to pass the Raise the Wage Act and finally raise the federal minimum wage.

Thank you for taking action, demanding a liveable wage for all working people.

-The CHN Action Team

¹ Every Job Should Pay a Living Wage
² The Raise the Wage Act: Valuing Working People and Advancing Equal Pay - National Women's Law Center  
³ The impact of the Raise the Wage Act of 2025

-- MEREDITH'S EMAIL --

John,

This Labor Day weekend, millions of families are facing an affordability crisis. Rent is too high. Groceries cost too much. Health care, utilities, child care, and other basic necessities are eating up more of household budgets. Yet the federal minimum wage is still just $7.25 an hour, exactly where it has been since 2009.¹

Congress has allowed wages at the bottom of the pay scale to remain frozen while the cost of basic needs keeps climbing. For people with the lowest incomes, every rent increase, grocery bill, utility hike, or unexpected medical expense hits even harder.

Congress can do something about it. The Raise the Wage Act of 2025 would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour by 2030 and phase out separate subminimum wages for tipped employees, workers with disabilities, and young workers.²

For Labor Day, members of Congress will issue statements praising the contributions working people make to our communities and economy. Those words should be backed up with action. After 17 years without an increase in the federal minimum wage, Congress has waited long enough.

Tell your members of Congress to pass the Raise the Wage Act and finally raise the federal minimum wage.

The impact would reach millions of households. The Economic Policy Institute estimates approximately 22.2 million people would receive higher wages under the bill, resulting in roughly $70 billion in additional wages each year. For an affected person working year-round, that amounts to an average annual increase of about $3,200.³

For a household struggling to make ends meet, $3,200 is real money. It can help cover groceries, keep the lights on, pay a medical bill, buy school supplies, or help a family keep up with rent. As millions lose access to basic needs programs including SNAP and Medicaid,⁴ workers deserve wages that keep up with rising costs—not policies that leave them further behind year after year.

And the benefits would be concentrated among people who need them most. More than half of workers living in poverty would receive a raise under the legislation. Black and Hispanic workers would also benefit at disproportionately high rates.⁵

Congress also needs to end the outdated system that allows some people to be paid even less. The federal tipped minimum wage remains at just $2.13 an hour, where it has been since 1991, and federal law still allows some workers with disabilities to be paid below the standard minimum wage.⁶

Raising wages is one concrete step Congress can take to address an affordability crisis squeezing families across the country.

Send a message to your members of Congress and demand that they pass the Raise the Wage Act now.

Thank you for all you do,

Meredith Dodson
Senior Public Policy Director, CHN Action

¹ Every Job Should Pay a Living Wage
² Sanders, Scott, 175 Colleagues Introduce Bill to Raise Minimum Wage to $17 by 2030, Benefitting Nearly 22 Million Americans
³ The impact of the Raise the Wage Act of 2025
⁴ 262 Organizations Call on Congress to Reject a Harmful Reconciliation 3.0 Package - Coalition on Human Needs
⁵ Why the U.S. Needs at Least a $17 Minimum Wage - National Employment Law Project
⁶ The Raise the Wage Act: Valuing Working People and Advancing Equal Pay - National Women's Law Center