With income inequality at an all-time high and worker’s rights at an all-time low, it’s time something is done to mandate corporations raise the minimum wage and stop poverty wages from crippling workers and communities across the nation.
It’s time state and national lawmakers commit to raising the minimum wage for all low-wage workers in the U.S. to $15 an hour.
While the state minimum wages range from $7.50 in Arkansas, Maine and New Mexico to $9.47 in Washington state, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there are about 20.6 million people that are considered “near-minimum-wage” workers. And the restaurant and food service industry is the single biggest employer of near-minimum-wage workers, according to Pew Research Center.
As Robert Reich puts it, the “first step toward making work pay is to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, pegging it to inflation” because no full-time American worker should be living in poverty. The cycle is unacceptable and must come to an end.
We must stand in solidarity with low-wage workers and wedge the income inequality gap by supporting the Fight for 15. Let’s start by building a movement for shared prosperity and eventually “give all Americans a share in future economic gains.”
