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The only thing stopping minimum-wage workers from getting a $2.10-an-hour pay raise is the unwillingness of the Republican leadership of Congress to allow consideration of a "clean" minimum-wage bill with no poison pills and no strings attached.

In July, 48 House Republicans, including your representative, signed a letter asking their party’s leaders to schedule a vote to increase the minimum wage by $2.10 an hour, to $7.25. Were they serious? Or were they playing politics?

These representatives have the power to force a vote to raise the minimum wage. To get the bill to the floor, we need 218 signatures on a discharge petition, and we have 192 signatures now. Just 26 more signatures will mean a House vote to lift working families from poverty by increasing the minimum wage.

Minimum-wage workers have waited a decade for a raise. But Republican congressional leaders have blocked it by tying minimum-wage legislation to unjust and unwinnable measures like a tax cut for the estates of rich people like Paris Hilton and the Wal-Mart heirs.

Tell your representative to get real—sign the discharge petition to force a clean vote on a minimum-wage increase. Send the following message:

• Reject any cynical effort to tie an estate tax cut to a minimum-wage increase.
• What we need is a clean vote to raise the minimum wage.