Chart of the Week: This simple step would raise 3.7 million people out of poverty by 2025…

After the longest period in U.S. history without a minimum wage increase, 32 million people are still waiting for a raise.

reaDER,   July 24 marks 12 years since the minimum wage was last raised, making it the longest period without a minimum wage hike in U.S. history. The numbers speak for themselves: after adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage today is 21% less than it was 12 years ago and 34% less than in 1968, costing the average U.S. worker thousands of dollars each year.  SHARE ON FACEBOOK SHARE ON TWITTER A recent EPI report demonstrated that today's minimum wage would be more than $22 per hour had it tracked with productivity increases over the last five decades. But we don't need to go that far—yet—because raising the federal minimum wage to just $15/hour by 2025 would grant a much-needed raise to more than 32 million U.S. workers.   That's a lot of people and there's a good chance that someone important to you would benefit from raising the minimum wage. Here are some of EPI's findings on who would be positively impacted by a wage increase:  60% of those getting raises would be essential and front-line workers. That's 19 million people.  Almost one in four (23%) workers who would benefit is a Black or Latina woman.  One out of three Black workers (31%) would get a raise, as well as one out of four Hispanic workers (26%). Two out of five child care workers, or about 560,000 people, would get a raise. 95% of these workers are women, and 36% are Black or Hispanic. 3.7 million people would be lifted out of poverty, including 1.3 million children.  EPI's research into the wide-reaching positive impacts of raising the minimum wage was essential in getting the 2009 increase passed, and this research takes significant time and resources to produce. Can we count on you to stand with EPI today by making a $15 gift to ensure we can continue getting research into the hands of activists and policymakers working to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2025?  Thank you for continuing to be an active reader and helping EPI by sharing our research and resources with your network. We appreciate everything you do for our collective movement.  Ben Zipperer Economist, Economic Policy Institute DONATE Facebook Twitter epi.org View this email in your browser | Unsubscribe from this list