Executives at GAP heard President Obama’s State of the Union call for businesses to raise wages loud and clear. The retailer announced today that by next year, all of its workers will be making at least $10 an hour.

While GAP is making the right move and doing right by its 90,000 workers around the country, Congress must follow suit to lift millions out of poverty. There are bills in both the House and the Senate that would raise the federal minimum wage for 16 million workers and lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty. Yet, hardline Republicans in Congress continue using the same tired excuses against giving Americans a raise.

When even Wal-Mart is considering raising wages, when the President increases the minimum wage for federal contracted workers and makes raising wages a cornerstone of his national agenda and when an overwhelming majority of Americans support an increase in the minimum,it is definitely time for Congress to take action.

But government action isn’t the only answer to raising wages. That’s why today’s move by GAP is an example that corporations should follow.

This article was originally printed on SEIU on February 20, 2014.  Reprinted with permission.

Author: Jumoke Balogun