Take Action: Call your member of Congress’ office or write them a letter!

 

Below is a sample of a letter to be sent to .

 

Sample letter to your member of Congress:

Dear Representative/Senator

[NAME],

I am one of your constituents, living in [CITY, STATE], and am writing you today to urge you to support raising the minimum wage to $10.50 per hour to catch up with 1968! Today minimum wage workers are making less, inflation adjusted, than they did 45 years ago in 1968. In those 45 years, the minimum wage has lost one third of its value at the same time that average CEO compensation has skyrocketed over 900 percent!

Raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour would stimulate our economy by benefiting at least 30 million workers Studies have shown that, despite what critics say, raising the minimum wage does NOT increase unemployment. In fact, a report from the Economic Policy Institute show that raising the minimum wage to $15 would provide raises to 114,000 DC residents and 98,000 Maryland residents. And a Chicago Federal Reserve study shows that for each dollar increase to the minimum wage, the result is $2,800 more annual spending from that minimum wage workers’ household.

Opponents of raising the minimum wage will say that raising the minimum wage will harm jobs, that it will primarily hurt small businesses, or that most minimum wage workers are teenagers working part time jobs. But studies have refuted all three of these points: several studies have shown that previous increases to the minimum wage did not increase unemployment, two-thirds of minimum wage workers are employed by large, profitable corporations, and over 75 % of minimum wage workers are at least 20 years old.

On top of all of this, poll after poll has shown that at least 75 % of Americans support increasing the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation. Can I count on you to stand with the majority of likely voters, to support better quality jobs for 51 million hard-working Americans, and to work to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour?

Sincerely,

[NAME]