VOTERS APPROVING $15 MINIMUM WAGE

“The [$15 minimum wage] issue has motivated thousands of protesters to join the Fight for $15’s periodic strikes: What started in one city ultimately swelled to protests in 150 American cities. By many measures, it has become the biggest labor protest in decades, with a wide spectrum of supporters, from college students and inner-city workers to janitors and nursing-home aides. The movement helped to get voters in the Seattle suburb of SeaTac to approve a $15 minimum wage, and not long after in Seattle itself and San Francisco, followed by Los Angeles and Pasadena.

“ ‘These victories made people believe this wasn’t some crazy demand,’ said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, which has spent millions of dollars underwriting the Fight for $15. ‘These incremental victories began to add up, and $15 moved from a demand to a standard. Now the fight is, how fast can you get it.’ She added that private employers, including Nationwide Insurance, Facebook and U.P.M.C., Pittsburgh’s largest hospital chain, have increasingly embraced a $15 minimum.”

Steven Greenhouse, “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went from Laughable to Viable,” The New York Times, April 1, 2016. Steven Greenhouse, a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation, is a former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

50 MILLION WORKERS EARN LESS THAN $15 AN HOUR

“The movement for a $15 [wage] floor has been partly fueled by the same frustration over wage stagnation and income inequality that has spurred the campaigns of Donald J. Trump and Bernie Sanders. More than 50 million workers earn less than $15 an hour, and many Americans are upset about the loss of millions of factory jobs and the explosion of low-paying service-sector jobs. Mr. Sanders has championed a $15 minimum, but Mr. Trump has attacked the idea, at one point saying that wages are too high. Hillary Clinton has called for a $12 minimum, leaving states and cities to go to $15 if they like.”

Steven Greenhouse, “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went from Laughable to Viable,” The New York Times, April 1, 2016. Steven Greenhouse, a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation, is a former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

59 PERCENT BACK $15 MINIMUM WAGE

“ ‘There’s still a lot of pro-labor, pro-worker sentiment,” said Michael Kazin, a historian at Georgetown University who has written about populism and popular movements. “Inequality is a big issue nowadays. The Fight for $15 has become the way that civil rights was in the early ’60s — it’s an issue you can’t avoid. For politicians — or at least Democratic politicians — you want to be on the right side.’

“Fifty-nine percent of Americans, including 84 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of independents, support a $15 minimum wage, according to a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonpartisan research group. Just 32 percent of Republicans do.”

Steven Greenhouse, “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went from Laughable to Viable,” The New York Times, April 1, 2016. Steven Greenhouse, a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation, is a former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

PLANS FOR $15 MINIMUM WAGE ARE SPREADING

“In New Jersey, Democratic lawmakers have warned Gov. Chris Christie that if he vetoes a $15 statewide minimum, they will ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment that sets a $15 floor. And in Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has announced plans to push the City Council to embrace the idea. The Legislatures in Connecticut and Massachusetts are also weighing $15.”

Steven Greenhouse, “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went from Laughable to Viable,” The New York Times, April 1, 2016. Steven Greenhouse, a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation, is a former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

TWO STATES GOING TO $15 MINIMUM WAGE

“Last Monday [March 28, 2016], Gov. Jerry Brown of California announced a deal with state lawmakers to raise California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022 — a move expected to lift pay for five million workers. And late Thursday [March 31, 2016] Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York reached a deal with legislative leaders to adopt a $15 minimum wage in New York City in 2018 and in its suburbs in 2021, with a $12.50 minimum in upstate New York.

“ ‘Once California and New York go, it is likely that more states will follow,’ said Paul K. Sonn, general counsel of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for low-wage workers.”

Steven Greenhouse, “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went from Laughable to Viable,” The New York Times, April 1, 2016. Steven Greenhouse, a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation, is a former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

‘A NATION OF RENTERS’

“Job scarcity and low wages are the reasons we’re becoming a nation of renters rather than homeowners. They are the reasons that 51 percent of workers earn less than $30,000 a year. They are the reasons for the demise of the middle class and the burgeoning welfare rolls, the modern-day equivalent of slavery.”

Catherine Sellers, “The Causes of Income Inequality,” American Thinker, November 3, 2015.

WAGES FOR THE BOTTOM 90 PERCENT HAVE BEEN STAGNANT

“Income inequality has risen during the last several decades to heights last seen in the 1920s. Most of the income growth has gone to a small fraction of the population, the ultra-rich elites, while real wages for the bottom 90 percent has been stagnant since the 1980s. The U.S. now ranks at, or near, the top of developed countries for income inequality. Job creation has lagged far behind population growth. Automation has erased some jobs, but corrupt, inept government leadership is responsible for the deplorable job-deficit-low wage situation.”

Catherine Sellers, “The Causes of Income Inequality,” American Thinker, November 3, 2015.