The movement was successful, and in April of a year ago NY Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law to increase wages to a $15 minimum by the end of 2018 in New York City, and by 2021 in other counties, including Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester.
"Think back to five years ago: President Obama had yet to call for even a $9 an hour federal minimum wage, and the two members of Congress courageous enough to call for $10.10 an hour were considered insane", Fight for $15 leader Terrence Wise said in a statement Wednesday.
Unfortunately, while Sanders is popular with his public, his minimum wage bill will have some serious hurdles to cross to pass through the Republican House and Senate. According to the Economic Policy Institute, tipped minimum wage workers experience twice the poverty rate of other Americans, with almost 13 percent living in economic hardship.
The bill would eventually do away with the separate tipped minimum wage, which now allows those who earn tips as part of their compensation to be paid as little as $2.13 an hour by their employers.
Backing to avert permanent Iran foothold in Syria
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified the incursion explaining that IDF planes targeted a Hezbollah weapons convoy. After Ya'alon's shocking comments, his office refused to elaborate on his statements despite repeated media requests.
Sanders' Senate office estimates the legislation would affect more than 41 million employees, bumping up pay for almost 30 percent of the workforce.
Sanders and Murray's legislation would give more than 41 million low-wage workers a raise, increasing the wages of nearly 30 percent of the US workforce. Other cities, including Portland and Chicago, have seen significant minimum-wage increases. It would rise automatically after that as the country's median wages rose. The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009. "I don't have a magic bank account where there is money available for the cost-of-living increase, so you are going to pay for it".
The last version of the Sanders bill, 2015's Pay Workers a Living Wage Act, had just five co-sponsors.
During Wednesday's wage rally in front of the Capitol, Sanders acknowledged the activism that has brought support for the wage fight into the mainstream of the Democratic Party. "But a grassroots movement of millions of workers, led by Good Jobs Nation and the SEIU, refused to take 'no" for an answer. A majority Republican holding on the Senate means that we won't see even a penny of minimum wage raising, much less a doubling of it.
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