“In the wealthiest nation on earth nobody who works full time should have to live in poverty—nobody, not here in America.”-President Obama, yesterday as he signed an executive order that raises the minimum wage to $10.10 for all new federal contract workers.

We agree!

This is important because right now a full-time employee working at the federal minimum wage makes just $15,080 per year. Studies show that raising the federal minimum wage will boost both the economy and families, yet 28 million people in our nation have been stuck working at this too low minimum wage. 

It’s time for a change.

The President’s signature yesterday was a terrific start in raising the minimum wage to $10.10 for government contract workers, but now it’s up to us to make sure the minimum wage is raised to $10.10 for everyone in America—and only Congress can do that.

Too many parents are working hard and still struggling to feed their kids because they earn only $7.25 an hour, the current federal minimum wage.  This hurts families. This hurts our businesses and economy. This hurts us all.

*Tell Congress it’s past time to raise the minimum wage for hard-working moms dads, and everyone across the country: http://action.momsrising.org/sign/momsraisethewage/

 Why is this an issue for moms?

The majority of people who earn the minimum wage are women— and 28% of them have children. Many of these moms do critical work in our communities: preparing and serving food, cleaning offices and schools, and caring for the elderly.  And more than half of these workers are working full-time and still living below the poverty line.

In our consumer-fueled economy, moms make nearly three-quarters of purchasing decisions.  That’s a lot of consumer power. But it also means that when moms aren’t paid fairly, and don’t have funds to spend, our entire economy is impacted.

Study after study shows that raising the minimum wage has a positive ripple effect as these wages are spent in local stores, in our communities, and fueling our economy. In fact, studies show that 140,000 new jobs would be created by raising the minimum wage, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago says a raise in the minimum wage would help our economy by increasing household spending nationwide by about $48 billion, even benefiting the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Tell your members of Congress to take action now to raise the minimum wage! http://action.momsrising.org/sign/momsraisethewage/

As the President said yesterday, “The opponents of the minimum wage have been using the same arguments for years, and time and again, they’ve been proven wrong. Raising the minimum wage is good for business and it’s good for workers and it’s good for the economy. It puts money in these folks’ pockets, that means they have some money to go shop, which in turn means the business has more customers, which means they may hire more workers and make more of a profit.”

*Now is the time. Sign on with us to urge your members of Congress to raise the minimum wage to boost our families and economy: http://action.momsrising.org/sign/momsraisethewage/

Raising the minimum wage is clearly good for all of us. So please take a moment now, after signing on via the link in this email, to forward this email to friends, family, and neighbors—and also to post the action link on Facebook and Twitter. The more of us who are calling on Congress for an increase in the minimum wage, the more likely this policy will move forward.

We’ll be delivering this petition directly to members of Congress in the coming weeks so don’t delay in signing on (and sharing the action link).

Moms are working hard for America. It’s time for America to work for moms. Tell Congress to follow the President’s lead and get moving to raise the wage to $10.10: http://action.momsrising.org/sign/momsraisethewage/

Together, our voices are powerful!

We also want to hear your thoughts and experiences about living on the minimum wage. Please submit your stories here: https://www.momsrising.org/member_stories/topic/share-your-experiences-on-the-minimum-wage-with-momsrising/