3 Years Without a Raise: Campaign for Higher Minimum Pay Launches

http://inthesetimes.org/working/entry/13565/3_years_without_a_raise_campaign_for_higher_minimum_pay_launches/

Tuesday Jul 24, 2012 2:31 pm

By David Moberg



Chanting "We need a raise in the minimum wage," a couple dozen members of Action Now, a low-income community organization, marched last Thursday afternoon around a downtown Chicago outlet of Dunkin' Donuts, one of the nation's leading employers of near-minimum wage workers.

Yesterday, community group leaders joined teachers union members in a news conference and protest outside the offices of a private equity firm partly owned by Penny Pritzker, billionaire heiress and Board of Education member (coincidentally, on the same day a nationwide boycott indirectly targeted Pritzker family-controlled Hyatt Hotels). They presented evidence that raising the wages of parents making the minimum wage would improve their children's performance in school.

The two demonstrations were preludes to demonstrations in favor of raising the federal minimum wageheld in more than 30 cities today, on the third anniversary of the last time Congress raised the minimum wage (now $7.25). Sixteen states have set higher minimums, while nine have no minimum or one less than the federal level for workers exempted from the federal minimum.

The coalition pushing for an increased minimum wage—such as Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-IA) proposal for a boost to $9.80 an hour in three annual increases, followed by annual increases reflecting rises in the cost of living—includes the Service Employees International Union, the National Employment Law Project Action Fund, the AFL-CIO, and other labor, civil rights, women's and progressive groups.

FULL story at link.