On January 10, I was honored to join my colleagues as part of the new Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in passing an increase to the federal minimum wage.

Under the Fair Minimum Wage Act, passed by the House in a vote of 315 to 116, the federal minimum wage would increase from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over two years. 

The previous Republican-led Congress passed tax cuts for the wealthiest and ignored the needs of hard-working Americans earning the federal minimum wage.

The result has been that our nation's federal minimum wage workers have been forced to support themselves and their families for nine years on a mere $5.15 an hour, while at the same time the cost of living has continued to climb. The severity of a mere $5.15 hourly wage is highlighted by what is happening in my home state of California where the state minimum wage is $7.50 an hour. This is more than two dollars an hour more than the current federal minimum wage. Yet many Californians, including many in my own district, continue to live in poverty. How much greater of a struggle for survival it must be for those in our country earning only $5.15 an hour.

Who are the workers in our country earning the federal minimum wage? Most are full time hard-working American adults. Most have not had the educational and career opportunities of higher wage earners. Nearly all of these workers provide essential services, often in jobs that are dangerous and unreliable, yet essential to our American economy. An hour's pay, $5.15, will not buy a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. A day's wages will barely fill their car's tank with gasoline. And their monthly income may not be enough to cover their family's average monthly health care costs.

It is unforgivable that thousands of hard-working Americans in this country live $4,000 below the poverty line and struggle even to provide the basics of food and shelter for their families.

The Fair Minimum Wage Act respects their hard work and significant contribution to our nation's economy.  Passage of this measure is an important testament to our new Congress' commitment to hard-working low-income Americans who strive to provide for themselves and their families. I urge my colleagues in the U.S. Senate and the President to support this wage increase. A pay raise for these 13 million workers nationwide is long overdue.  It is wrong to have millions of Americans working full-time year-round and still living in poverty.  The Fair Minimum Wage Act is an important step in correcting this wrong and will help more workers in our country share in the American Dream.

(Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard’s office offers a wide variety of services to the community, including financial aid workshops, a service academy workshop, a scholarship directory and constituent casework services to assist district residents in resolving problems with federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  More information about federal services can be obtained by visiting Congresswoman Roybal-Allard’s web site at www.house.gov/roybal-allard or by calling her district office at (213) 628-9230.)
 

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