Become a Minimum Wage Increase Citizen Co-Sponsor (Ted Kennedy)

[stepnw1f]

Thought I'd pass this onto DU.

Dear Friends:


Over the past ten years, Members of Congress have raised their own pay by $31,000, but the minimum wage hasn't gone up a cent. It's still just $5.15 - $10,700 a year for a full-time worker. No one can live on that. It's more than $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. In the wealthiest country on the face of the earth, no one who works for a living should have to live in poverty.


That's why I've fought time and again to increase the minimum wage. Yet, time and again, Republicans in Congress have refused to give hard-working men and women the pay they deserve.


One thing I've learned in this ongoing battle is that the American people understand what this Republican Congress does not - that a fair increase in the minimum wage is long overdue. People see their friends and neighbors struggling to survive on poverty wages, and they want to help.


I'm working with community activists, religious leaders, and workers around the country to obtain citizen co-sponsors for my Fair Minimum Wage Act, which will raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over two years. With these signatures in hand, I'll demand a vote on the minimum wage as soon as possible.


To help make this effort a success, I am asking each of you, as friends and supporters, to stand with us. Please sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act, and encourage others to do so. With your help, we can succeed, and give minimum wage workers a well-earned raise.

sign up

[stepnw1f]

1. damn

[Drum]

2. Kick & Rec!

:kick:

[Mnemosyne]

3. Very important. n/t

[mom cat]

4. K&R and signed the petition for my senator.

[stepnw1f]

5. kick! (nt)

[bread_and_roses]

6. Too little. Takes to long. Another timid, largely symbolic sop

to workers. It would take about $8.45 to raise the minimum wage to its' 1968 level. That's TODAY. No doubt it will be more in two years.

Why not be bold - you're out of power, the issue (from what I've read) has broad support among the general public, and it's an issue that could bring a number of disillusioned, stay-at-home voters out for your Party. Go for $10 hr., then, if you have to whittle it down to get anything passed, you can blame the Republicans. $20,000 = Federal Poverty Guideline for a family of 4 if the wage-earner works full time, forty hours a week, 50 weeks a year. Many, if not most, minimum wage jobs do not provide full time work. It would still take two wage earners to take a family of four above the Poverty Guidelines.

And the Poverty Guidelines, by definition, are the absolute minimum that a family needs to provide food, shelter, and little else. There is no money for a vehicle, gas, babysitter, etc., calculated. THOSE expenses require a "self-sufficiency wage" - which is much higher.

[stepnw1f]

7. Thanks for Kicking the Thread

[stepnw1f]

8. Please Keep Kicked

[Sapphire Blue]

26. ...

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

9. K & R

Thanks for posting, stepnw1f :hi:

[pinto]

10. Thanks for the post. I'm signed up.

(I think livable wage is a broad based Dem value issue. Sen. Kennedy has been consistent in his support.)

[stepnw1f]

12. I Really Am Proud of This Man

Fortunate to have him.

[Catchawave]

11. Done !

[stepnw1f]

13. .

[TayTay]

14. Done and thanks Senator! n/t

[Craig3410]

15. Simple enough.

Let Kennedy have the Senate vote on it and when it fails (Thanks to republicans, of course) attack them with it, saying the repubs "don't care about the little people".

Oh wait, that's what a politician with balls would do; all of our Senators are neutered. :mad:

[Hidden Stillness]

16. Signed It--Needed, But Still Not Enough to Solve the Problem

Many people on DU and the official Democratic Party to too great a degree, seem unaware that there are millions of people living in this country on $10-15,000 a year, or even less. They live on minimum wage jobs, or on fixed incomes otherwise. With the recent price-gouging increases of home-heating prices, and gas for vehicles, and always climbing prices for everything else, there is total despair among the American people who cannot pay their bills at all anymore; they are not "having trouble," they CAN'T PAY. When you are poor, bills are crushing you, and no one is helping you, there are no other issues. You can't live.

I signed the petition and always support Sen. Kennedy, but I also agree with the poster on this thread (kenzee13, reply #6), that it is not nearly enough. This is extremely popular among the American people, yet we get "D"LC "strategy" that worries what business executives will think. This is just about the central issue of the American people, being crushed by the capitalist free ride.

[entanglement]

24. I agree. So many people believe the reich wing bull-shit and lies

about the minimum wage that I'm ready to :banghead:

[mdmc]

17. a kick for unity

[intheflow]

18. K&R

Bush is cutting fair wages in the South during hurricane recovery, Kennedy wants to raise wages from New England. Pretty much sums up the red/blue divide of the nation.

I'll side with the blue. :)

[Sapphire Blue]

19. ...

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

20. ...

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[Sapphire Blue]

21. ...

:kick:

[Cobalt Violet]

22. Done!

Now I'm probablly on the terrorist watch list, and my phone will be bugged, and my emails intercepted.

:sarcasm:

[entanglement]

23. Kick

[mdmc]

25. yes