raise the minimum wage to $10/hour, thus creating better living conditions, but also more spending and tax revenues.

According to a recent study, under current federal minimum wages laws ($7.25/hour), in most states a person must work about 75 hours per week in order to afford a two bedroom unit at fair market rent. In more than a handful of states, the amount of hours required would be closer to 100 hours or more. In this struggling economy, raising minimum wages would update the most recent minimum wage legislation to account for inflation, thereby (1) assisting women, people of color, veterans, and other disfranchised Americans in getting more equitable wages, (2) helping people get out of crippling debt and easing their financial worries, (3) creating more robust consumers, (4) raising sales tax revenues, and (5) shrinking the enormous income disparities that currently exist in our society.