Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke released the following statement on her efforts to secure a vote in the House of Representatives to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

On Wednesday, Democrats in the House of Representatives filed a “discharge petition,” which if signed by a majority of members would require Republican leaders to allow a vote on raising the minimum wage, currently $7.75 an hour. Congresswoman Clarke has signed the petition. Almost twenty-five million workers would receive higher wages as a result of an increase to $10.10 an hour.

“American workers are the most productive in the world. Yet the wages paid to workers have actually declined in recent years, even as their productivity has increased,” said Congresswoman Clarke. “An increase in the minimum wage would establish the value of work, and allow millions of families to escape from poverty almost immediately. It is my hope that this increase in the minimum wage will eventually develop into a living wage – on which a full-time worker could support a family – that increases with the cost of living.”

Congresswoman Clarke continued: “People around this nation – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – support an increase in the minimum wage. Economists have concluded that a $10.10 minimum wage would substantially reduce poverty. We need to act on our priorities, on our belief in rewarding work, not wealth. We need to have a vote.”

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.