Co-Sponsor the Living Wage for All Act—Hard Work Deserves a Living Wage

I urge you to co-sponsor the Living Wage for All Act. No one who works 40 hours a week should struggle to afford housing, groceries, health care, or child care. In the richest country in the world, a full-time job should provide a decent standard of living—not poverty. The federal minimum wage has remained frozen at just $7.25 an hour since 2009. Its purchasing power has eroded dramatically while the costs of basic necessities have skyrocketed. Millions of hardworking Americans are earning less in real terms than workers did decades ago. The Living Wage for All Act would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour, phase it in more quickly for the nation’s largest and most profitable corporations, eliminate all subminimum wages, and automatically adjust the wage over time so workers do not continually fall behind inflation. Raising wages is also smart economics. Consumer spending makes up about 70% of the U.S. economy, and low-wage workers are the most likely to spend additional earnings immediately at local businesses. That increased spending strengthens Main Street, supports small businesses, and creates jobs. Higher wages also reduce employee turnover, improve productivity, lower recruitment and training costs for employers, and decrease reliance on taxpayer-funded assistance programs such as SNAP and Medicaid. Research has consistently found that moderate increases in the minimum wage have little to no negative effect on overall employment, while lifting earnings for millions of workers and helping reduce poverty. Working Americans have fueled record corporate profits while their own paychecks have failed to keep pace with the cost of living. Congress has a responsibility to ensure that hard work is rewarded with economic security. Please co-sponsor the Living Wage for All Act and help build an economy that works for working people—not just the wealthy.