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$7.25 per hour won’t get you Era’s Tour tickets.
From Netflix to eggs to nosebleed Era’s Tour seats, everything seems to be expensive these days. Unfortunately, the federal minimum wage hasn’t kept up with the trends, staying firmly at $7.25 since 2009. That’s right: the last time the minimum wage was raised, Matthew Morrison was terrorizing our screens on Glee with his rendition of “Thong Song.”
Data for Progress finds people are, understandably, eager to see an increase to the federal minimum wage. We asked voters what they believe a worker needs to earn in order to have a decent quality of life, and the average response was $26 per hour. That’s a pretty big jump from $7.25. It might not get you those Era’s Tour tickets, but it will help you pay bills and afford basic necessities like food and clothes, and one could argue that's just as important.
Data for Progress also finds 85 percent of voters support raising the minimum wage to $12 per hour, 76 percent support raising it to $17 per hour, and 74 percent of voters are in favor of raising the minimum wage to $20 per hour. C’mon, it’s time for a change — It’s not the early aughts anymore, Will Shuester can’t hurt us, and we need to raise the federal minimum wage.
Read the polling here.
Here are some other highlights from DFP this week:
This girl won’t be unfairly fired.
Surprises can be fun! Surprise parties, surprise Beyoncé and Taylor Swift albums, surprise endings to TV shows about power-hungry media empire families. You know what’s not fun? Being surprise fired.
This summer, New York’s hottest club is the Secure Jobs Act, which was recently introduced by the New York Council. The bill requires employers to provide advance notice and reasonable justification before they discharge employees – so, sorry, you can’t pull a Greg Hirsch and fire all of your staffers on a whim.
Data for Progress finds 81 percent of New York voters support requiring employers to provide reasonable justification when firing employees. This includes 88 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of Independents, and 68 percent of Republicans. So while being a Nickelback fan might seem like a good reason to fire someone, under the Secure Jobs Act, it probably wouldn’t count as reasonable justification.
Eighty-nine percent of New York voters also believe employers should provide a fair warning before firing employees. This includes 94 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of Independents, and 81 percent of Republicans.
Look, no one wants to be surprise-fired on a random Tuesday right after they went way over their budget on that Hamptons or Fire Island house. In a city that’s full of surprises, like unpredictable trains and cat-sized rats, the Secure Jobs Act would give New Yorkers the protection and security they need in their jobs.
Read the full blog and polling here.
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