Kirsten Gillibrand United States Senator for New York

The minimum wage – which disproportionally affects women - has failed to keep pace with a living wage, and in fact leaves many families impoverished - these families deserve better.  A full-time, year-round job at the current minimum wage leaves a woman with two children thousands of dollars below the poverty line. By increasing the minimum wage, working women and families will overwhelmingly benefit and put more money back into the economy on basic household goods.

Senator Gillibrand is pushing to pass the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 over the next three years, with future increases indexed to the rate of inflation. It would also raise the minimum wage for tipped workers for the first time in more than 20 years.

The Fair Minimum Wage Act will lift the minimum wage to $21,000 per year, allowing families to achieve beyond the poverty line.  Someone working full-time at minimum wage earns $290 a week, or just $15,080 yearly without any time off. This annual salary for a minimum wage earning working poor family of three is $3,000 below the poverty level on an annual basis.

More than 30 million American workers will earn a raise under this bill. Almost two-thirds of these workers are women, with 17 million women expected to get a raise. The vast majority (88 percent) are adult workers, not teenagers. More than twenty-three million children (30 percent of American children) have parents who will get a raise and will likely spend it on their food, clothing, toys and other basic needs.

Additionally, increasing the minimum wage will benefit our nation’s stalled economy. Increasing the wage to $10.10 an hour could increase America’s GDP by approximately $33 billion over the course of three years as workers spend their higher earnings at local businesses. That injection of new economic activity would generate up to 140,000 new jobs in the same time span, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 has broad support across the business community, including the Main Street Alliance, U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, Business for Shared Prosperity, American Sustainable Business Council, and employers like Costco, along with New York-based organizations, including the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, Eileen Fisher, ABC Home and BALCONY.  

Raising the minimum wage is a common sense way to grow our economy, support job creation, and rebuild America’s middle class. By rewarding hard work, not only will more families raise themselves into the shrinking middle class, but we can grow our economy for generations to come.

Download a copy of The American Opportunity Agenda here