John Edwards for President-Giving A Raise To Millions Of Working Familes

Giving A Raise To Millions Of Working Familes

In America today, most families are working harder and struggling to get by. With Washington dominated by powerful special interests, it is no coincidence that the benefits of economic growth are enjoyed by increasingly few individuals while most families' wages are stagnant. The national minimum wage now fails to keep working families out of poverty. While the upcoming increase will give a much-needed raise to millions of families, it is far from enough. John Edwards believes that we need to build One America where everyone has an opportunity to work hard and build a better life. He has proposed initiatives to guarantee universal health care, strengthen unions, and crack down on predatory lending. Today, he called for increasing the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2012 and ensuring that it continues to rise so minimum-wage workers will share in our nation's prosperity.

Low-Wage Workers Need A Raise

On May 25, 2007, President Bush signed the first increase in the minimum wage in nearly a decade. The wage will increase from $5.15 to $5.85 on July 24 and to $7.25 in two years, directly raising wages for 6 million workers and indirectly helping another 7 million. However, the higher minimum wage came after nearly a decade of delay and still remains inadequate as tool to fight poverty, reward work and reduce inequality.

The Minimum Wage Remains below Historic Levels: Even at $7.25 an hour, the real value of the minimum wage will be more than $1 below half the average wage, a historic benchmark. The $7.25 wage is only about 40 percent of the average wage. [EPI, 2007]

For Families, the Minimum Wage Is a Poverty Wage: Almost 80 percent of workers benefiting from a minimum wage increase are adult workers. Americans working full-time at the minimum wage today take home only about $10,700 a year before taxes, nearly 40 percent below the poverty line for a family of three. Even after this month's scheduled increase to $5.85, minimum-wage workers will earn about $12,200, still nearly 30 percent below the poverty line for these families. [Kennedy, 2007; EPI, 2007]

Our Shared Prosperity Depends on Improving Low-Wage Jobs: As the number of service jobs in our economy continues to grow, improving the quality of these jobs is critical to the strength of the middle class. Eighteen of the 30 fastest-growing occupations pay low or very low wages, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. [BLS, 2004]

Raising the Minimum Wage Is Good for the Economy: Our economy works best when regular families are sharing in its prosperity. Raising the minimum wage gives millions of workers more buying power and allows them to support their families with less government aid and contribute to the economy. Studies have shown no negative employment effects from recent minimum wage increases, and higher wages can lead to lower employee turnover and absenteeism and improved productivity. [Card and Krueger, 1994; Fiscal Policy Institute, 2004; EPI, 2007]

John Edwards' Plan To Reward Work With Living Wages

A longtime champion of raising the minimum wage, John Edwards worked to help pass minimum wage ballot initiatives in six states in 2006. He believes that the minimum wage should be more than a safety net: it can lift more than a million workers out of poverty and play a meaningful role in reducing inequality. As president he will:

Raise the Wage to $9.50 by 2012: Edwards will set a national goal of a minimum wage that equals half the average wage. To accomplish this goal, he will raise the minimum wage by 75 cents a year until it reaches $9.50 in 2012. Edwards will also restore the minimum wage for tipped workers to half the full minimum wage; the minimum wage for these workers has stood at $2.13 since 1997. [EPI, 2007]
Ensure Continued Rising Wages: Working families cannot rely on Washington to stand up for them. Instead, recent decades saw Congress tolerating a stagnant minimum wage while millions of families lost ground. Once the minimum wage reaches $9.50 an hour, Edwards will index it so that it automatically rises each year along with average wages, ensuring that all workers share in America's growth. [CBPP, 2006]
Take Care of the Caretakers: The Supreme Court recently ruled that home health care workers are not eligible for federal minimum wage protections. Millions of these care providers work long hours without overtime and at hourly rates below the minimum wage, and the occupation is projected to grow faster than any other job in America. Edwards will amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to include home health care workers. [Washington Post, 6/12/2007; BLS, 2004]