A group of more than 400 citizens today summoned their Congresswoman, Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia), to a public meeting during the August Congressional recess to discuss raising the minimum wage.
More than 400 citizens signed a petition to Capito asking her to sign on to a bill in Congress that would raise the minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour to $10.50 an hour.
The signatures were collected over the past two weeks in Capito’s Second Congressional District.
The petition was dropped off at Congresswoman Capito’s Martinsburg office this afternoon.
No one answered the door at Capito’s office, so the petition was dropped in Capito’s mail slot. (see video).
The petition asks that Capito meet with her constituents in a public meeting during the August 2013 recess to discuss raising the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour.
“Thirty million hard-pressed American workers are making less per hour today than workers made in 1968 – 45 years ago – adjusted for inflation,” according to the petition.
Worker productivity has doubled since the 1960s while executive pay of large corporations – that employ two-thirds of low income workers – has risen nearly 1,000 percent.
Adjusted for inflation since 1968, the federal minimum wage, now stagnant at $7.25 per hour, would be $10.67 per hour.
Some countries, like Australia, far outpace the United States when it comes to the minimum wage. Australia’s minimum wage is $16 (US).
The petitioners rejected President Obama’s, Congressman George Miller’s and Senator Tom Harkin’s minimum wage proposals — which they said don’t come close to catching up with 1968 by 2016.
They instead endorsed Congressman Alan Grayson’s bill — H.R. 1346 — that requires a hike to $10.50 per hour, 60 days after passage.
“A $10.50 per hour minimum wage would be a major, immediate economic stimulus and expand employment,” the petition said.
“The moral case for catching up with 1968 is overwhelming and supported by 70 percent of the American people.”
The petition calls on Capito to meet with the citizens at a town meeting, during the August recess, “at a convenient, public space to discuss the legislative necessity of a $10.50 federal minimum wage for the working poor of our country who produce, serve and care for us each day.”