Letter to John Boehner

The Honorable John Boehner
Majority Leader
House of Representatives
H-107, the Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Leader,

We write today to urge you to schedule a vote on legislation, which would provide a substantial increase in the minimum wage before the House recesses for the August District Work Period.

As you know, it has been nearly ten years since the last increase in the minimum wage. At the current rate, a minimum wage employee who works 40-hours a week earns $10,700 per year. For a single parent with two children that amount is thousands of dollars below the federal poverty line. Nobody working full time should have to live in poverty. We believe it is time for Congress to take responsible action to raise the minimum wage and ensure our hard working constituents can provide for their families.

Again, we urge you to schedule a vote on legislation to provide a meaningful increase in the minimum wage before the end of July 2006. We look forward to working with you to ensure a majority of our colleagues in the House will support such legislation and we thank you for your attention to this critical issue.

Signers of the letter:

John Sweeney (R-NY)
Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ)
Stephen LaTourette (R-OH)
Ray LaHood (R-IL)
Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY)
Phil English (R-PA)
Jerry Weller (R-IL)
Christopher Shays (R-CT)
Nancy Johnson (R-CT)
John McHugh (R-NY)
James Walsh (R-NY)
Rob Simmons (R-CT)
Tim Johnson (R-IL)
Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Jim Saxton (R-NJ)
Randy Kuhl (R-NY)
Mike Castle (R-DE)
Curt Weldon (R-PA)
Joe Schwartz (R-MI)
James Leach (R-IA)
Mike Ferguson (R-NJ)
Peter King (R-NY)
Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
Fred Upton (R-MI)
Sye Kelly (R-NY)
Shelly Moore Capitol (R-WV)

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny20_sweeney/PR071206MINWAGE.html