By Seth D. Harris, Acting Secretary of Labor for the United States
Pattie Federico earns just above the minimum wage working at a local movie theater. And she needs every penny. Like many Americans, she struggles to make ends meet, but Pattie feels like she is falling even further behind. With her current wages, getting to the point where she could scrape by paycheck-to-paycheck would be an improvement. Every day she wonders, do I have enough money for gas? Will my car hold up just a little bit longer before I have to pay for repairs? Pattie — and 15 million workers just like her — deserve a raise.