Skip to content

Minimum Wage

‘Tired Of Waiting’ For Politicians, Minimum Wage On Ballot In Four States

November 4, 2016 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org ,
By Lauren McCauley for Common Dreams - Voters, "tired of waiting" for federal lawmakers, will soon be casting their ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and Washington to raise the grossly inadequate minimum wage and, advocates hope, raise the standard of living for roughly 2.1 million Americans. While none of the four ballot measures goes so far as to call for the $15 an hour wage that has been the rallying cry of the low wage worker movement and which became a pillar of Sen.

The Real Living Wage? $17.28 An Hour – At Least

November 3, 2016 Julie Chinitz, www.ourfuture.org ,
By Julie Chinitz for Our Future - Fifteen dollars shouldn’t be too much to ask – or demand. In almost every state, a worker needs more than $15 an hour to make ends meet. Add in student debt, and the minimum living wage shoots up to $18.67 an hour nationally. A family with children needs significantly more. That’s according to new research from People’s Action Institute, which calculates the national living wage at $17.28.

Raising Minimum Wage Does Not Kill Jobs

October 29, 2016 Molly Cain, www.talkpoverty.org ,
By Molly Cain for Talk Poverty - Raising the minimum wage would help a lot of Americans. It would raise wages for 35 million workers, bring 4.5 million people out of poverty, and reduce the wage gaps that plague women and people of color. Local movements to raise the minimum wage have started to take hold—30 cities have raised their minimum wages since 2014—but the minimum wage has not been increased at the federal level for seven years.

A Convention For The 64 Million Americans Paid Less Than $15/Hour

August 17, 2016 Antoin Adams, www.huffingtonpost.com , ,
By Antoin Adams for The Huffington Post - In the nearly 100 degree heat this weekend, I joined thousands of fast-food and other underpaid workers in Richmond, VA—the capital of the former Confederacy— to lead the first-ever Fight for $15 National Convention. It wasn’t a typical convention like you see on TV: We didn’t endorse any candidates, and there weren’t speeches from politicians. Instead, we came together in Richmond to highlight the racist policies that are holding back workers of color nationwide, and to mobilize the 64 million Americans paid less than $15/hour ahead of the 2016 election.

Meet The 25-Year-Old Fighting For A $15 Minimum Wage

May 16, 2016 Katie Johnston, www.bostonglobe.com ,
By Katie Johnston for Boston Globe - Darius Cephas didn’t realize he was about to help spark a revolution when a labor organizer walked into the Dorchester McDonald’s where he worked and told him about a campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and form a fast-food industry union. Cephas, now 25, was ready for a fight. Working low-wage jobs since he was 14 to help his mother, he had dropped out of trade school to take care of her when she had a stroke. He and his McDonald’s co-workers had just been talking about how little they were paid, with many trying to support families on $8 or $9 an hour.

Students Block Traffic In Support Of Higher Minimum Wage

May 12, 2016 Staff, www.dbknews.com , ,
By Staff of DBK - Almost 20 students blocked traffic on Campus Drive Friday afternoon to protest the campus minimum wage, which sits $1.30 below the Prince George's County minimum wages. Students sat on the crosswalk in between the engineering fields and Glenn L. Martin Hall, clapping and chanting, stopping traffic for eight minutes and 25 seconds, symbolizing the hourly wage for on-campus workers. Others supporting the rally joined in their clapping and chanting from the sidewalk.

‘The State Stole My Raise’: Workers Sue Alabama Over ‘Racist’ Wage Law

May 9, 2016 Jana Kasperkevic, www.theguardian.com ,
By Jana Kasperkevic for The Guardian - Fast-food workers from Birmingham, Alabama, are suing their state legislature after it passed a law that put a stop to their expected pay raise. Nine months ago, the workers scored a major victory as Birmingham became the first city in the deep south to pass a law enacting a higher minimum wage. At the time, the city council agreed to increase the local minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 by July 2016 and to $10.10 by July 2017.

Supreme Court Delivers Victory For Supporters Of Seattle’s Minimum Wage Law

May 3, 2016 For Cristian Farias, www.huffingtonpost.com , ,
For Cristian Farias for The Huffington Post - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a sweeping constitutional challenge to Seattle’s minimum wage law, in what could have been a test case for future legal attacks on similar measures across the country. In a one-line order, the justices declined to hear a case by the International Franchise Association and a group of Seattle franchisees, which had said in court papers that the city’s gradual wage increase to $15 discriminates against them in a way that violates the Constitution’s commerce clause.

Fight For $15 Continues To Build Power & Momentum

April 10, 2016 Jack Temple, www.PopularResistance.org , ,
By Jack Temple for Fight for 15. After California and New York officially made $15/hour the law of the land on Monday, pundits and observers around the country turned their attention to the workers who made these historic wage increases possible: Two Fight for $15 leaders from New York and California – Manhattan McDonald’s worker Jorel Ware and LA McDonald’s worker Anggie Godoy – wrote in the Huffington Post this week about how speaking out on the job created real change in their states: “Since the time when we each first joined the Fight for $15, we have learned that the way working people win justice is by joining together and taking a stand. Our wins this week from coast to coast show more than anything the power of workers organizing.” And in the LA Times on Monday, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry summarized how workers have flipped the politics of the country by going on strike and speaking out: “The fearlessness of the workers has made elected officials understand that there is huge wind at their back. We’re proud that it created a situation where both New York and California were dueling at the same time. […] It’s how the movement has created more than we even imagined possible before.”

Newsletter – Building Toward Political Revolution

April 9, 2016 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. Of course, we also know the Panama Papers leak is about just one tax evasion firm, and not a major one. This is a small tip of a massive tax evasion iceberg. Estimates are that $7.6 trillion in individual assets are in tax havens, about one-tenth of the global GPD. The use of tax havens has grown 25 percent from 2009 to 2015.  Gabriel Zucman, author of The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens and assistant professor at UC Berkeley estimates that US citizens have at least $1.2 trillion stashed offshore, costing $200 billion a year worldwide in lost tax revenue and US transnational corporations are underpaying their taxes worldwide by $130 billion. The Panama Papers will escalate demands for transformation of the economy as well as of government; continue to increase pressure on capitalism and result in the growth of the people powered movement for economic justice.

#MillionStudentMarch: Time To Build Political Revolution!

April 7, 2016 Staff, www.studentmarch.org , , , , ,
By Staff of Million Student March - On November 12, the first #MillionStudentMarch took place on 115 campuses across the country. On April 13th, we’re doing it again, this time joining forces with Black Liberation Collective, the group behind the Mizzou Movement, to say “no” to racism and student debt! Students nationwide will be coming together to challenge the racism of Donald Trump and the corporate establishment.

Why The Delay? US Should Pay $15 An Hour Now

April 3, 2016 Jonathan Rosenblum, www.alternet.org , , ,
By Jonathan Rosenblum for AlterNet. Millions of workers across the country have won wage hikes under the banner of $15, and this week many more in California stand poised to join the parade. But three and a half years after the first picket sign was hoisted demanding $15/hour and union recognition, very few minimum wage workers are actually getting paid that much. That’s because among those crafting wage legislation, it’s become an axiom that increases must be phased in over time for the sake of business and economic stability. California Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez reflects a prevailing establishment view that what’s needed is “a reasonable, measured approach that would prevent sticker shock for businesses.” Newly adopted $15 minimum wage laws have been unveiled with great fanfare and media coverage. But lost in the headlines is the reality that because of phase-in schedules, workers won’t actually see $15/hour in their pay for three, five or even seven years.

A $15 Minimum Wage Is Sweeping The Nation

April 3, 2016 Bruce Covert, www.thinkprogress.org , , ,
By Bruce Covert for Think Progress. If 2014 was the year where the majority of states got on board with a higher minimum wage than the federal level of $7.25 an hour, 2015 was the year the rallying cry for a $15 minimum wage gained serious legislative traction. This year, three California cities — Emeryville, Los Angeles, and Mountain View — all passedminimum wage increases that will eventually bring them up to $15 an hour. Meanwhile, New York State enacted an eventual $15 minimum wage for its fast food workforce, while Massachusetts enacted one for its home care workers. Those increases came on top of previous progress: SeaTac and Seattle in Washington and San Francisco in California passed $15 minimums in 2014.

California Reaches Deal To Raise Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour

March 28, 2016 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org , ,
By Lauren McCauley for Common Dreams - Hoping to avoid a costly ballot fight, California lawmakers and labor unions on Saturdayreportedly reached an agreement to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour gradually by 2023. Governor Jerry Brown is expected to make a formal announcement on Monday, but a source close to the negotiations revealed the content of the deal to the Los Angeles Times two days ahead. "According to a document obtained by The Times, the negotiated deal would boost California's statewide minimum wage from $10 an hour to $10.50 on Jan. 1, 2017

#FightFor$15 Overwhelms Republican Debate In Miami

March 11, 2016 Giovanna Vitale, www.PopularResistance.org , ,
By Giovanna Vitale for Fight For $15. An enormous group of underpaid Floridians busted through police lines in Miami Thursday evening on their way to GOP debate, where they’re calling on the candidates to stand with the nearly four million Floridians who make less than $15. Chanting “we work, we sweat, put $15 in our checks,” the group stormed through the University of Miami campus and up to the front gate of the BankUnited Center--as stunned Republican debate goers looked on. The crowd of hundreds forced police to shut down Ponce de Leon Avenue, the main street in front of the debate venue.
«12345678910»

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.