As Minnesota legislators consider increasing the minimum wage, it's important that they be thoughtful and reasonable to avoid hurting the very people a minimum wage increase is supposed to help. Ask your State Senator and State Representative to:

• Keep Minnesota's minimum wage reasonable and competitive. $9.50 is an excessive increase and would make us among the highest in the country and a clear outlier from surrounding states, all of whom are at $7.25.

• Do not index the wage to inflation.Putting future minimum wage increases on autopilot is a bad idea in a volatile economy and a competitive region.

• Protect good paying jobs by recognizing tips as income by creating a tipped employee tier to the minimum wage.

Minnesota's bars and restaurants are sources of good jobs for approximately 180,000 people and provide more than $2.3 billion in wages. A majority of those establishments are small businesses or are family-owned. We can keep Minnesota's hospitality industry vibrant, if the legislature is careful to do a minimum wage increase the right way.