[NV Greens] Fw: America Needs a Raise in minimum wage

[Barb Ewing]

Minimum Wage Shrinks
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Working Families e-Activist Network 
To: Barbara E. Ewing 
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 10:28 AM
Subject: America Needs a Raise


                    
           

                        Dear Working Families e-Activist, 

                                Call Your Senators: 
                                1-888-355-3588 
                                Tell Them: 
                                Raise the Minimum Wage Now
                                 
                                 
                                Congress is about to give itself another pay raise-its EIGHTH since 1997, the last time 
                                Congress raised the 
                                minimum wage. 


                                Tell your senators to share the wealth and raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. 


                                Call your senators now, 
                                toll-free, at: 


                                1-888-355-3588 


                                Please call: 


                                Senator Reid
                                Senator Ensign 
                                 
                                 
                             

                        Talk about disrespecting workers. Congress is about to take its eighth pay raise since 1997 and hasn't once increased the minimum wage in all that time. 


                        The Senate may vote on the minimum wage THIS WEEK. Please call your senators now, toll-free: 


                        1-888-355-3588 


                        Tell them it's time to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. 


                        Today's minimum wage of $5.15 an hour cannot keep even a small family above the poverty line. It's an American disgrace that millions of people who play by the rules and work hard every day can't pull even a small family from poverty. 


                        All of us know it's hard for working families' stagnant incomes to keep up with living costs. It's far worse for those struggling to make it on the minimum wage. They haven't gotten a raise since 1997. Taking inflation into account, the minimum wage now is worth 26 percent less than it was in 1979. And today we've got the highest inflation rate since 1980, spiking gas prices and a price tag for annual family health care premiums that is bigger than a year of minimum wage pay. 


                        Each year Congress considers raising the minimum wage-and each year lately Congress has voted it down. Meanwhile, though, our senators and representatives have gotten nice, fat annual raises. The latest, in January, raised their annual pay to $162,100-and they're likely to vote on another one this week. 


                        The horror that played out on our television sets after Hurricane Katrina showed how vulnerable our low-income communities are. We cannot allow families that work hard to fall victim to poverty. How can members of Congress sleep at night knowing they're indulging themselves while denying the basic survival needs of millions of working families? Please take a moment now to tell your senators to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. Call toll-free: 


                        1-888-355-3588 


                        Once you have called your senators, please click on the link below and urge others you know to call, too, to tell their senators to raise the minimum wage. We need you to forward this e-mail to your co-workers, friends and family. 


                        Thanks for your efforts to correct an American disgrace by raising the minimum wage. 


                        In solidarity, 


                        Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
                        Oct. 18, 2005 

                        P.S. Please forward this e-mail to your co-workers, friends and family. This is a critical issue for America's working families. 


                           

                             


                         
                       
                 


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