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Minimum Wage

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.

6 Arrested At Logan Airport In Wage Protest

January 19, 2016 Andy Rosen, www.bostonglobe.com , , , ,
By Andy Rosen for Boston Globe - State Police arrested six activists Monday at Logan Airport after dozens of activists flooded into a terminal to protest the treatment of workers at the travel hub, shouting slogans decrying “poverty wages” as some refused troopers’ orders to disperse. The event came as part of a national string of protests to draw attention to the wages paid to people who perform airport jobs like checking bags or cleaning terminals and airplanes. Though the employees have jobs at airports, they generally work for companies hired by airlines.

Newsletter: After The Crash…

January 9, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The economic agenda described here would create a radical transformation of the economy from a top-down system designed for the wealthiest, to a botton-up system that creates a foundation for an economy that benefits all. Putting in place this economy would move us from a plutocratic economy to a democratized economy where people have economic control over their lives. It is a radical shift – how can it happen? There is only one path – the people must be educated, organized and mobilized to demand it. We need to change the political culture to one where the necessities of the people and protection of the planet are the priorities of the economy. If predictions are correct, the next economic collapse will deeper and more damaging than the 2008 collapse. It will be a tremendous opportunity to demand radical economic change. It is one the movement for economic, racial and environmental justice should be preparing for now.

Minimum Wage Going Up In 14 States At Start Of 2016

December 24, 2015 Dave Jamieson, www.huffingtonpost.com ,
By Dave Jamieson for The Huffington Post - If you're among the country's lowest earners, you may be ringing in the new year with a pay hike. Fourteen states will be raising their minimum wages with the arrival of 2016, according to an analysis of state laws by Yannet Lathrop of the National Employment Law Project. The raises will range from a nickel an hour in South Dakota to a full dollar in California and Massachusetts. The latter states will be the first in the nation with a $10 wage floor.

Appeals Board Upholds Minimum Wage Hike To $15

December 11, 2015 Matthew Hamilton, www.blog.timesunion.com , ,
By Matthew Hamilton for Times Union - The state Industrial Board of Appeals has upheld the planned increase to a $15 minimum wage for the state’s fast food workers. “No one who works hard should ever be condemned to a life of poverty and that’s why we are continuing the fight today,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who called for a wage board to consider increasing the pay for fast food workers earlier this year. “We will not stop until we ensure a new standard of economic justice for all workers – and when New York acts, the rest of the nation follows.” The IBA shot down the National Restaurant Association’s arguments that internet entrepreneur Kevin Ryan was not an appropriate employer representative on the wage board...

Raising Minimum Wage Is Smart Politics And Smart Economics

November 15, 2015 Richard Correa, www.blackstarnews.com , , ,
By Richard Correa for Black Star News. Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense whether you are a Republican, Democrat or Independent. It should not be a partisan issue. Across the political spectrum, voters in my home state of Colorado and other key swing states – Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia – strongly support raising the federal minimum wage. This includes 77 percent of Republicans, 87 percent of Independents and 97 percent of Democrats, according to a recent poll by McLaughlin & Associates and Oxfam America. Raising the minimum wage is a personal issue for me – from growing up in a low-income family to running my business today. I know that raising the minimum wage will be a win-win for workers and business. My mom and dad taught me the value of hard work. But their minimum wage paychecks left them struggling to make ends meet. My mom worked in the school cafeteria at lunch and cleaned rooms at night. Minimum wage should cover the basics – not leave workers struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof overhead.

Job Creation Faster In States That Raised Minimum Wage

November 13, 2015 Staff, www.cepr.net ,
By Staff of CEPR, The experience of the 13 states that increased their minimum wage on January 1st of this year might provide some guidance for what to expect here in Washington, DC when the city-wide minimum wage increases to $9.50 on July 1. At the beginning of 2014, 13 states increased their minimum wage. Of these 13 states, four passed legislation raising their minimum wage (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island). In the other nine, their minimum wage automatically increased in line with inflation at the beginning of the year (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington state).

One Year From Election, Fast-Food Workers Wage Biggest-Ever Strike

November 10, 2015 Jack Temple, www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
By Giovanna Vitale and Jack Temple for Fight for $15 - Fast-food workers will wage their biggest-ever strike Tuesday – one year from Election Day – with walkouts hitting a record 270 cities from Detroit to Denver. The strikes will culminate in protests in 500 cities, where fast-food, home care, child care, and other underpaid workers will amass outside city halls—local symbols of political power— to demand that elected leaders nationwide stand up for $15/hr and union rights. The strikes and protests come as underpaid workers nationwide vow to take their Fight for $15 and union rights to the ballot box in 2016 to show candidates of all political stripes that the nearly 64 million Americans paid less than $15 are a voting bloc that can no longer be ignored. In addition to the strikes and city hall protests, auto parts workers, farmworkers, grocery clerks, FedEx drivers, nursing home workers and others will show their support for the Fight for $15 at rallies planned for 1,000 cities across the country, sending a message to candidates that higher pay and union rights are urgent issues for our country that need to be addressed now.

Direct Democracy For The Minimum Wage In 2016

October 25, 2015 Staff, www.TheFairnessProject.org , , ,
By Staff for The Fairness Project - While Congress and state legislatures across the country remain paralyzed by partisan disagreement, ballot initiatives hold the promise of improving the lives of millions of Americans. The Fairness Project is bolstering state-based ballot initiative campaigns and driving a national narrative to elevate issues of economic fairness.By harnessing the power of successful ballot initiative campaigns, The Fairness Project is empowering voters to take direct action to change their own lives. In 2016, The Fairness Project will focus on ballot-initiative campaigns that seek to raise the minimum wage, working with partner organizations across the country to enact legislation through the ballot box to improve pay for millions of working people. In future campaign cycles, The Fairness Project will work with state-level partners to select a single economic issue aecting a wide number of people, putting it on the ballot in multiple states, and establishing it as a central issue in the national political dialogue of that cycle.

St. Louis Judge Blocks Minimum Wage Increase In St. Louis

October 16, 2015 Laura Clawson, www.dailykos.com ,
By Laura Clawson for Daily Kos, The Missouri minimum wage is $7.65 an hour. And there it stays for the whole state, even if some cities want a minimum wage that's above poverty level. Take St. Louis. The city's minimum wage was set to go to $8.25 an hour on Thursday, on its way to $11 by 2018. But a judge has blocked that increase, because it's against a state law banning such local raises. Get this, though: The state law banning local minimum wage increases was passed—overriding Gov. Jay Nixon's veto— after St. Louis passed its increase in August, and after Kansas City passed an increase in July.

Wages Decline Especially For Low Wage Workers

September 6, 2015 Claire McKenna and Irene Tung, www.nelp.org , , ,
By Claire McKenna and Irene Tung for the National Employment Law Project - On this Labor Day 2015, underlying weaknesses persist in the labor market, as evidenced by the historically low employment rate of prime-age workers and the stubbornly high number of individuals unemployed for longer than six months. The “real” unemployment rate—which includes those working part time who want full-time work, and those who have stopped searching but if offered a job would take it—remains in excess of 10 percent. Taking into account cost-of-living increases since the recession officially ended in 2009, wages have actually declined for most U.S. workers, continuing a decades long stagnation of wages.

Newsletter – Black August, End Neo-Slavery, Resist

August 30, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - Black August is coming to an end as we commemorate the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As many head back to school, a full season of actions are being planned for the fall to stop the corporate takeover of our communities and world and the push toward neo-slavery. There is a lot of resistance going on. We hope that you have an opportunity this summer to relax and build up your energy for the many actions that are being planned for the fall. If you go to a park, there is one more thing you can do: take a moment to think about the people who inhabited the land before it became a park.
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