GOP Hurts Working Families by Failing to Raise the Minimum Wage

For those who question the value of raising the nation's minimum wage, Raul Meza from Van Nuys, California highlights in an op-ed what a higher wage will mean for him and his family.

From The Washington Post:

I clean high school bathrooms, and my new $15/hour salary will change everything…

Monday through Friday, my full-time job is cleaning restrooms at Van Nuys High School. But that work is not the hardest part of my life. The hardest part is saying goodbye to my 4-year-old son when he asks me not to go to work again. In order to make ends meet, I also work weekends and nights.

…I've done that for 10 years, and some days are better than others, but I like the work, and my co-workers are a supportive second family.

The one thing that hasn't been good about the job is the pay. But I just learned that's going to change…a new contract…will raise my pay to $15 per hour by 2016. This is a big deal for the 20,000 of us who make the district's lowest wages and are covered by the raises.

As every Angeleno knows, working 40 hours per week for less than $10 per hour is not enough to live on here.

I feel fortunate for what I have. I also feel tired a lot, from all the work and from lack of sleep; sometimes I get as little as two hours a night. But what I miss most is time with my son. He's always asking, "Daddy, where are you going?" Leaving breaks my heart every time. When I think about making $15 an hour, I think mostly of the time that money could buy with my son. I know that one of the best things about this raise is that so many of my fellow school workers have kids in district schools. So a raise like this won't just give workers more — it will give the district happier parents.

25 million hard-working Americans would benefit if the minimum wage were increased to $10.10 an hour – millions of them with stories similar to Raul's.  House Democrats have a bill to #RaiseTheWage, with 195 Members signed onto apetition demanding a vote on the legislation.  When will Speaker Boehner and House Republicans act?