WASHINGTON, DC - On the 75th anniversary of the establishment of a federal minimum wage, Mary Kay Henry, International President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), issued the following statement:

As we celebrate the anniversary of the federal minimum wage, we need to keep in mind that we have a lot of catching up to do for American workers.

"The federal minimum wage has fallen far behind the pace of inflation - workers today make less than they did in 1968 when adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, productivity has doubled, but workers have yet to share in the benefits of their labor.

"The federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, amounts to only $15,080 a year. That's more than $7,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of four. A minimum wage worker working 40 hours a week cannot afford a two bedroom apartment in any state in America. People who work for a living should be able to support their families and live off their wages.

"We support the call to raise the federal minimum wage. In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for a raise as one way to 'build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class.' Earlier this year, Senator Tom Harkin and Congressman George Miller introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, a measure that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10, the first increase since 2009.

"We have come a long way in the last 75 years, but there is still an enormous amount of work to do in order to make sure workers are being paid what they are worth. It's time that they got a raise."

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