Schakowsky Announces New Report That Highlights Why Raising the Minimum Wage Is Key for America's Women

Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Jan Schakowsky announced the release of a new report that highlights why raising the minimum wage is key for America’s women. The report was prepared by the National Economic Council, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Department of Labor. For a copy of the report, click here.

“Today’s report further confirms why we must raise the minimum wage to help working women and strengthen our national economy,” Rep. Schakowsky said. “We know that women make up nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers in this country. As women have become the breadwinners or co-breadwinners in two-thirds of American families, those low wages increasingly hinder their ability to get ahead.”

“No one who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty,” Schakowsky said. “And yet today a single mother with two children, working full-time, year-round, and earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, makes only $14,500 a year. That is $5,000 below the poverty line.”

Congressional Democrats and President Obama are fighting to enact legislation that would raise the minimum wage over three years from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour and index it to inflation hereafter, while also raising the tipped minimum wage for the first time in over 20 years.

Following are some of the key findings of the new report released today:

· Women account for more than 70 percent of the workforce in low-wage sectors -- sectors such as personal care and direct care occupations.

· More than half (55 percent) of the 28 million workers who would benefit from increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 are women.

· An even larger majority (72 percent) of the workers who would benefit from raising the tipped minimum wage are also women.

· Raising the full minimum wage and the tipped minimum wage would help make progress toward closing the gender pay gap. Currently for every dollar that men earn, women earn just 77 cents (only 64.5 cents for African-American women and 55 cent for Latina women). Estimates from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers suggest that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and indexing it to inflation could close about 5 percent of the gender wage gap.

· Raising the minimum wage will also raise millions out of poverty.

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