Sisters and Brothers -
Washington DC, with its lobbyists, campaign contributors, and powerful special interests, is the last place in the world to know what’s going on in the lives of working families or to bring about the structural reforms our society needs. If we want to bring about real change in this country, and get ordinary people to stand up and fight for justice, we’ve got to hit the road and take the fight to working class communities. Staying within the “beltway” won’t do it.
And that’s what I’ll be doing on June 1st, June 2nd, and June 3rd as I head to Durham, NC, Nashville, TN, and Charleston, SC to hold rallies on the need to raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage of $17 an hour. I will be joined at those rallies by Rev. William Barber — one of the great social justice leaders in the country — trade unionists, and local workers. If you live near any of these communities, we’d love for you to join us.
Congress can no longer ignore the needs of the working class of this country. At a time of massive and growing income and wealth inequality and record-breaking corporate profits, we must stand up for low-income workers — many of whom are struggling every day to provide a minimal standard of living for their families.
One important way to do that is to raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage. In the year 2023, nobody in America should be forced to work for starvation wages. It should be a basic truism that in the United States, the richest country on earth, if you work 40 hours a week you do not live in poverty. Raising the minimum wage is not only the right thing to do morally. It is also good economics. Putting money into the hands of people who will spend it on basic needs is a strong economic stimulant.
But raising the minimum wage will only happen if all of us stand together and demand it. So today, before I hit the road this week, I am asking for your financial support to help strengthen our movement across the country. Putting on grassroots events is expensive, but it’s something we must do. There is nothing more important than mobilizing the working class around a progressive agenda.
When 60% of American workers are now living paycheck to paycheck, when the life expectancy of low-income Americans is in decline, when we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country, when the cost of housing is soaring, when 85 million Americans are uninsured or under-insured, we can no longer tolerate a federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, a wage that has not been raised since 2009. Since it was last raised 13 years ago, the federal minimum wage has lost 21% of its purchasing power. This is unacceptable. Millions of Americans cannot be allowed to fall further and further behind economically, unable to afford the housing, food, health care, childcare, and education they desperately need in order to live in dignity.
Whether they are greeting us at Walmarts, serving us hamburgers at McDonald’s, providing childcare for our kids, or waiting on our table at a diner in rural America, there are too many Americans trying to survive and raise families on $9, $10, or $12 an hour. It can’t be done. This injustice must end. Low-income workers need a pay raise and the American people want them to get that raise.
Poll after poll shows overwhelming support for raising the minimum wage to a living wage. But it’s not just polls. The good news is that in 2021 the Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The bad news is that in a 50-50 Senate, those of us in the Senate supporting that legislation lacked the votes to do the same. Not only did a $15 an hour minimum wage bill not get any Republican support in the Senate, we lost 8 Democrats.
That was then. Now is now. And things are changing. As a result of years of congressional inaction, cities and states all across the country are taking the low wage crisis into their own hands and raising their minimum wage. Some are doing it through legislative action. Others are doing it through ballot initiatives. Since 2013 the people of 12 states — New Jersey, South Dakota, Arkansas (twice), Alaska, Washington, Maine, Colorado, Arizona, Missouri, Florida, Nevada, and Nebraska (twice) – have voted on ballot initiatives to raise their state’s minimum wage. Every single one of these initiatives passed, none with less than 55% of the vote. And these are not just strong “blue states” voting for economic justice. In the recent November 2022 mid-term election, two states that voted in Republican governors, Nebraska and Nevada, voted to raise the minimum wage. In 2020, the citizens of Florida, with a Republican governor and 2 Republican senators, also voted to raise the minimum wage.
Raising the minimum wage to $17 an hour over a period of several years and addressing the scandal of the "tipped wage" would provide an increase in pay for tens of millions of desperate Americans – disproportionately women and people of color. It would also be a huge boost to single moms. Let us not forget that these are the essential workers who kept the economy going during the worst of the COVID pandemic. At that time we called them 'heroes and heroines.' Well, rhetorical praise is nice. A livable paycheck is better. Let’s do it.
In solidarity,
Bernie
Holding rallies across the country is an expensive proposition, and it's very important for Bernie to mobilize our movement around issues like raising the minimum wage to a living wage. But he cannot do it alone.
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