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ACORN helped raise the federal minimum wage

Arizona ACORN members move the "vote yes" message at a minimum wage rally in October 2006.

ACORN’s 2006 election campaign, "Raise the Minimum Wage," represented unprecedented victory for working families.

May 24, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 348-73 to approve a measure raising the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over the next three years. The Senate approved the increase, giving low-wage workers their first boost in a decade.

Although the victory will give 13 million workers a $2.10 hourly raise July 24, it is not indexed to inflation, which has historically risen at a much faster rate.

"The minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation," Maude Hurd said after hearing the news.

"We will continue to work with our allies in Congress and around the country to see the minimum wage return to something that can help sustain a working family."

In 2006, In Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, and Ohio, voters overwhelmingly approved ACORN-backed ballot initiatives to raise the state minimum wage by $1.35 or more, delivering raises to 1.5 million workers. To pass the measures, more than 1,600 ACORN members, canvassers, and volunteers contacted 380,000 voters in low and moderate income and minority neighborhoods.

ACORN also had a strong role in legislative campaigns that raised the minimum wage in eight states (Md., Mich, Ark., Penn., N.C., Mass., Calif., Ill.) and in Albuquerque, N.M. In Pine Bluff, Ark., Washington D.C., and Nassau County (N.Y.), ACORN members won legislation requiring living wages for thousands of city workers.

The ACORN Living Wage Resource Center provides support to Living Wage Campaigns around the country.