WASHINGTON, D.C. – In advance of National Minimum Wage Day tomorrow, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) renewed his call to support workers and promote economic opportunity for all Americans by raising the federal minimum wage. The current federal minimum wage stands at just $7.25 an hour and the tipped minimum wage – which hasn’t been increased in more than 20 years – stands at just $2.13 an hour. According to a new report, women – who make up 66 percent of all tipped workers – are disproportionately affected by the tipped minimum wage and most likely to experience economic insecurity.

“Every hardworking American deserves the opportunity to earn a living wage,” Brown said. “On Minimum Wage Day and every day we should remember that too many Ohioans work hard and take responsibility but are still teetering on the poverty line. We must raise the wage.”

Brown is the cosponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage. It would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from its current $7.25—in three steps of 95 cents—then provide for automatic annual increases linked to changes in the cost of living. The bill would also gradually raise the minimum wage for tipped workers—which currently stands at just $2.13 an hour—for the first time in more than 20 years, to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage.

According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the minimum wage has lost more than 30 percent of its spending power over the last forty years. But according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), raising the federal minimum wage for both tipped and non-tipped workers would lift 4.6 million people out of poverty. And NELP also concluded that the Fair Minimum Wage Act would boost GDP by nearly $33 billion and generate 140,000 new jobs over three years as workers spend their raises in their local businesses and communities. 

When the tipped minimum wage was first established, it was 50 percent of the regular minimum wage, and at its peak, 60 percent during the 1980s. Today, however, it stands at a mere 29 percent of the regular minimum wage. That’s why Brown cosponsored the Fair Minimum Wage Act which would gradually raise the tipped minimum wage to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage.

In February, Brown authored a Senate resolution to highlight this inequity and aimed at boosting the tipped federal minimum wage, which would help lift hundreds of thousands of workers out of poverty. The resolution was cosponsored by U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Carl Levin (D-MI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).  

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