Good news for 1 million low-wage workers: In 2013, 10 states will see a bump in the minimum wage. 

Dave Jamieson at the Huffington Post writes in "Minimum Wage Increase Hits 10 States, Boosting Pay For An Estimated One Million Workers":

As the new year starts, Arizona's lowest-paid workers will see a gift—the state's minimum wage will go up 15 cents, to a new total of $7.80 an hour. More than 72,000 workers will get a boost in their pay equaling an average of $320 annually. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the increased consumer spending generated by the increase will add $13 million to the local gross domestic product (GDP). Nine other states also will be raising their wages on Jan. 1, 2013, helping nearly 1 million workers across the nation.

This a guest post from Saru Jayaraman,  director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-founder and co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, and Joann Lo, executive director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance.

Big Food companies and their lobbying groups have lied to us many times. They convinced Congress to include tomato paste on pizzas as a vegetable. They say we need industrial, chemical-laden agriculture to feed the world (check out Anna Lappé’s new video Food MythBusters to learn that we don’t). And Big Food has also spread the mythology that if the minimum wage is raised, food will become so expensive that none of us will be able to afford to eat out—or eat at all—again.

In the aftermath of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., the GOP stuck with its principles regarding keeping low-paid workers, well, low paid.

The crew that cleaned up the convention hall last week—about 105 workers—included many whose take-home pay amounts to less than the state's minimum wage. 

A new study finds that when states raised the minimum wage in recent recessions, their economies suffered less job loss than those that did not (click on chart at left to expand).

Stacey Hendler Ross, communications director of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, sends us this. 

Through rap, “spoken-word” poetry and music, one strong message permeated a room full of supporters for a November ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage in San Jose, Calif.: “It’s time for $10.” The event, held at IBEW Local 332 featured AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler who flew in from Washington, D.C., to throw her support behind the campaign. Shuler's labor roots are with IBEW Local 125 in Oregon.

Shuler offered her unwavering endorsement of the minimum wage increase as she lauded the group of young activists who launched the effort to create an ordinance mandating a $10 an hour minimum wage in San Jose. The current California state minimum is $8.

When wages rise, workers and communities benefit. So imagine how improved our national economy would be if the wages of nearly 30 million workers got a boost?

If Congress acted to raise the federal minimum wage to $9.80 by July 1, 2014, some 28 million workers would see a pay increase, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) latest report on the minimum wage. Further, those workers would receive nearly $40 billion in additional wages over the phase-in period.

During an across the phase-in period of the minimum-wage increase, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) would increase by roughly $25 billion, resulting in the creation of approximately 100,000 net new jobs, according to EPI.

Many U.S. workers don’t have jobs—nearly 13 million. Less known, however, is that many more don’t have good jobs—fewer than one-quarter of America’s workforce, according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). The center defines a good job as one that pays at least $18.50 an hour, or $37,000 per year, equal to the inflation-adjusted earnings of the typical male worker in 1979.  A good job also includes employer-provided health insurance and a retirement plan (click on chart at left to expand).

The lack of available good jobs is not new. As CEPR finds, compared with 1979, the U.S. economy has lost about one-third (28 percent to 38 percent) of its capacity to generate good jobs.

But why?

As Congress considers raising the nation’s minimum wage, it’s a good time to point out that it’s not just for teens earning pocket money. At $7.25 an hour, the current minimum wage hasn’t been raised for three years. Proposals in both the House and Senate would increase the federal minimum wage to $9.80 by July 1, 2014.

A report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) points out that

87.9 percent of those affected nationally by increasing the federal minimum wage to $9.80 are 20 years of age and older. The share of those affected who are 20 or older varies by state, from a low of 77.1 percent in Massachusetts to a high of 92.4 percent in Florida (and 93.9 percent in the District of Columbia).

We reported this week the federal minimum wage hasn't increased in three years. If the minimum wage increased with inflation, it would be $10.55, not $7.25 as it is today. In no state can a minimum wage employee working a 40-hour week afford a two-bedroom apartment. This is why the AFL-CIO is urging Congress to pass the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012.