Minimum Wage in US / Two-thirds of the federal minimum wage earners are women

Hiking the minimum wage has become the issue-of-the moment for Democrats, and as with many other major policy initiatives of late, they’re touting it as legislation that has a greater impact on women.

It’s a tactic they embraced in the run-up to the 2012 race, as the “War on Women” narrative took hold. But now instead of just taking on obvious women’s issues—the Violence Against Women Act, for instance—they’re targeting women voters on health care, immigration, and economic policy.

“Are Republicans really going to block giving 15 million American women a raise? Are they prepared to tell one in four women in America that $7.25 an hour, which is barely enough to buy a couple gallons of gas, is enough for them to support themselves and their kids?” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said at a press conference, flanked by nearly all of the other Democratic women in the Senate. “If they are, what does blocking a minimum-wage increase say about their priorities when it comes to American women?”

The lawmakers pointed out that two-thirds of people earning the federal minimum wage or less are women.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Democrats Want to Turn the Minimum Wage Into a Women’s Issue. Will It Work? – NationalJournal.com.

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