Legions of people work every day in America caring for children and the elderly, ensuring the security of public and commercial buildings, preparing and serving food in schools, restaurants and nursing homes, ringing up customer purchases, cleaning office buildings, hotels and homes, beautifying gardens, parks and lawns and more. These jobs, while essential, pay little.

Close to 60% of all jobs created since the bottom of the recession–and most of the jobs projected to be created in the next decade–are low-wage occupations like these. Workers often rely on food stamps, the earned income tax credit and other means-tested programs — often threatened to be cut — not because they don’t work hard enough but because their earnings are pitifully low. And while these workers strive to save, it is plainly impossible for them to save enough to finance their retirement, or manage the ever-escalating cost of college for themselves or their children.

They need a raise.

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