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** Raising the minimum wage ([link removed])
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** What’s happening
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For more than a decade, the federal minimum wage has not budged from $7.25 an hour.
The Raise the Wage Act, introduced in the House Tuesday, would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, narrowing racial and gender pay gaps and strengthening the economic well-being of this country’s lowest-paid workers.
** Here’s the Act’s upshot:
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* Raises the minimum wage to $9.50 this year.
* Then raises it in steps annually to $15 by 2025.
* After that, adjusts the wage to keep pace with the growth of typical worker pay.
* Phases out the tipped-worker wage (frozen at $2.13 since 1991)—so that all workers must be paid at least the regular minimum wage.
** Who will benefit?
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* 32 million workers—or 21% of the U.S. workforce.
* Year-round workers, who will see $3,300 added to their annual income.
* Women, who make up the majority of minimum wage earners.
* People of color, who make up a disproportionate share of low-wage workers.
* 60% of workers living in poverty.
* Communities, thanks to workers having $107 billion more to spend.
** It’s past time to raise the federal minimum wage.
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Why the U.S. needs a $15 minimum wage ([link removed])
The federal minimum hourly wage is just $7.25 and Congress has not increased it since 2009. Low wages hurt all workers and are particularly harmful to Black workers and other workers of color, especially women of color, who make up a disproportionate share of workers who are severely underpaid. Read the fact sheet » ([link removed])
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** Why the U.S. needs a $15 minimum wage
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** What we’re talking about
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Unionization rates remain historically low, yet rose in 2020 ([link removed])
While unionization levels dropped in 2020, unionization rates rose because union workers have seen less job loss than nonunion workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the report » ([link removed])
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Pandemic Teacher Shortages Imperil In-Person Schooling ([link removed])
EPI’s Emma García is quoted in The New York Times: “[The pandemic teacher shortage is] a disaster. Those kids who have already got the worst of COVID and its consequences are the ones who are going to face a larger lack of sufficient, and sufficiently qualified, teachers.” Read the article » ([link removed])
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** What we’re reading
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Amazon Union Drive Takes Hold in Unlikely Place ([link removed])
The largest, most viable effort to unionize Amazon in many years began last summer not in a union stronghold like New York or Michigan, but at a Fairfield Inn outside Birmingham, in the right-to-work state of Alabama. Read more » ([link removed])
From The Bronx To Bessemer, Essential Workers Are Fighting Back ([link removed])
Essential workers have been risking their lives stacking boxes, driving trucks, ringing doorbells and delivering necessities for millions of Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more » ([link removed])
Restaurants push for more access to Covid vaccine, but unlikely to force workers to receive it ([link removed])
As the Covid vaccine rollout gains steam nationwide, restaurants are weighing options to encourage workers to get the vaccine. Read more » ([link removed])
Share this newsletter:
Raise the Wage Act will boost paychecks for 32 million workers
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