I am a small restaurant owner with 40 employees and I pay a minimum of $10.10 per hour to my employees. One staff member came to us after working for McDonald's for 10 years. She started in 1999 at $5.50 per hour and worked long hours just to get by. After 10 years she had to work overtime just to bring home $350 a week, and had no life and was exhausted every day. Now that she is making $12 per hour, she doesn't have to work overtime and feels that her work is valued when she gets a decent raise. She is able to pay her bills and is not worried every week about how she is going to make it. Raising the minimum wage means that people have more money to spend, and they will spend it at stores in the 23rd District on food, gas, books, music, electronics, entertainment and services. When I pay my employees more money, they also spend it in my restaurant. Keeping wages low does not make my business run better when my staff are stressed and worried about not being able to pay their bills. Increasing wages does not make me fire people, it provides me with a stable and satisfied workforce and low turnover. Increasing the minimum wage both helps workers and reduces the need for supplemental government assistance programs like food stamps -- goals that people favoring smaller government should support. In fact thousands of families in the poorest counties in the 23rd district would be lifted out of poverty with a minimum wage increase to $10.10.

I would like to get a raise. I make less than the proposed new Minimum Wage. And yet I am 57.

Adjunct Faculty make up 70% of the faculty at Colorado Institutions of Higher Ed. They receive ridiculously low pay and no benefits. This does not encourage the best teachers to teach. This is a glaring inequity that undermines our Higher Ed system.

It's not just teenagers working part time for spending money to replace their weekly allowances. Many families in our district depend upon minimum wage earners to pay the bills. The current minimum wage leads to poverty for many households. That's why I am asking Rep. Daniel Webster to show that his interests are with working families and not big corporations by supporting an increase in the minimum wage.

I am a public school teacher and have seen so many of my colleagues/para educators struggle to make ends meet, many have to work a second job. I see many community members come to the food pantry at my church, on a weekly basis.

Americans who work hard - some even juggling 2 or 3 jobs - shouldn't be struggling to pay their bills and feed their families. Yet this is the reality for thousands because big corporations are allowed to pay their employees poverty wages. Rep. Frelinghuysen should stand with working people by supporting an increase to the minimum wage.

After the 2007 economic crash, my 40 year old son lost his supervisor job in Phoenix. He has had to work two minimum wage jobs since then.

My son is affected by low wages from Walmart. He has trouble paying his bills and just getting by with groceries. Rep. Coffman should sign the bill to give thousands of Americans a raise! The working people in America deserve it.

Minimum wage affects all wages and wages have remained stagnant for to long and in many cases have even receded all the while cost of living has skyrocketed

I am starting this petition to improve our economy. Higher wages give workers more $$$ to spend and buy products thus creating more jobs. Rep. Mica and other republican politicians probably get large donations from big corps like Wal-mart to block living wages for their workers so that they can make higher profits and buy more influence in Washington.

I see Rep. Sean Duffy's constituents in Wisconsin's 7th District working hard every day, but many are struggling desperately to support their families. They deserve a fair minimum wage.

This is a no-brainer. Just follow your humanity.