Inflation is crushing Americans. Gas prices and grocery costs are skyrocketing and everyday families are bearing the brunt of a disastrous financial situation. Millions of people worldwide are on the brink of poverty.

Meanwhile. the federal minimum wage has not been raised since the Bush Administration1.

If the minimum wage had kept up with productivity, it would be $24 an hour today. By 2025, it would be almost $30. But wages haven't kept up with productivity, and the minimum wage is currently stuck at $7.25 while the costs of living like rent, healthcare, food, and more have skyrocketed2.

Currently, the federal minimum wage can hardly pay for the cost of a single gallon of gasoline in the United States3.

Past campaigns have held that a low-wage worker needs at least $15 an hour to cover basic living costs anywhere in the United States. But even the "Fight for 15" is becoming rapidly irrelevant, as $15 is no longer sufficient for people to comfortably survive in this country4.

While wages are kept low, wealth that should go to workers is redistributed to CEOs, and income inequality surges5.

Raising the minimum wage would affect 32 million workers6. Many of these workers have been putting their lives at risk on the front lines of the pandemic. They worked hard and risked their lives for little reward.

Federally, the minimum wage in the U.S. is just $7.25, less than the cost of a gallon of gasoline7, and too low for anyone to afford rent in a single state in the country8. During a time of record profits for billionaires and multinational corporations, there is literally no reason that workers are still making poverty wages9.

According to MIT's Living Wage Calculator, the minimum wage does not provide a living wage for most American families. Before pandemic pressures drove the economy into a tailspin, a living wage in the United States was $16.54 per hour, or $68,808 per year, before taxes for a family of four, compared to $16.14 in 2018. In 2021, the living wage rose to $24.16 per hour, or $100,498.60 before taxes for a family of four10.

Help us ask federal legislators to act quickly to prevent more people from slipping below the poverty line. Sign the petition and ask Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $24 an hour!

More on this issue:

1. Joseph P. Harkins, Katherine E. Bierma Pregel, Littler Mendelson P.C. (1 June 2007), "First Minimum Wage Increase in a Decade Signed Into Law."
2. Jon Schwarz, The Intercept (5 March 2021), "Forget $15 an Hour — the Minimum Wage Should Be $24."
3. Khaleda Rahman, Newsweek (23 May 2022), "A Gallon of Gas Now Costs More Than the Federal Minimum Wage."
4. Greg Iacurci, CNBC (22 February 2021), "Many Americans, especially families, can't live on a $15 minimum wage."
5. Nick Hanauer and David M. Rolf, TIME (14 September 2020), "The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure."
6. Economic Policy Institute (9 March 2021), "Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 would give 32 million workers a raise."
7. National Employment Law Project (July 2017), "The 21 States Stuck at $7.25: Federal Raise the Wage Act of 2017 Would Lift Wages for 20 Million Workers in These States."
8. Alicia Adamczyk, CNBC (14 July 2021), "Full-time minimum wage workers can't afford rent anywhere in the US, according to a new report."
9. Molly Kinder, Katie Bach, and Laura Stateler, Brookings (21 April 2022), "Profits and the pandemic: As shareholder wealth soared, workers were left behind."
10. Dr. Stephanie Moser and assistance from Chet Swalina, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (19 May 2022) "A Calculation of the Living Wage."