Posts tagged $15 per hour
Over 9.2 million workers will get a raise on January 1 from 21 states raising their minimum wages
December 18, 2024 // Twenty-one states will increase their minimum wages on January 1, raising pay for more than 9.2 million workers by a total of $5.7 billion. In addition, 48 cities and counties will raise their minimum wages above their state wage floors, mostly in California, Colorado, and Washington.
DNC union blasts Dems for laying off workers without severance on one-day’s notice: ‘Betrayal of party values’
November 22, 2024 // “These cuts go far beyond typical campaign turnover and impact employees who were previously told their positions would be retained after the election. Chair Jaime Harrison and Executive Director Sam Cornale refuse to address their staff face to face and have offered no explanation,” the union added. Between January and mid-October of this year, the DNC hauled in some $539 million, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Minimum Wages Wreak Labor Havoc
August 9, 2024 // Let’s consider the recent experience of California. It raised the minimum wage of restaurant workers from $16 to $20 per hour. In just the first two months after the law took effect, 10,000 jobs were destroyed and prices at restaurants have risen. In 2019, lawmakers in New York City passed a nearly identical piece of legislation. They increased the minimum wage from $13 to $15 per hour (equivalent to $18.72 today). The result was eerily similar. 90 percent of restaurants surveyed had raised prices, nearly 77 percent reduced employee hours, and 36 percent eliminated jobs. As then-president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Grech, pointed out, “[small businesses are] cutting their staff. They’re cutting their hours. They’re shutting down.”
Teamsters work to galvanize Amazon workers, hitting the company when it hurts most
March 7, 2024 // The resolution alleges that Amazon “exploits its employees, contractors, and employees of contractors via: wage theft, fraudulent classification, intense production quotas, dehumanizing work environments, unsafe workplaces and production standards, low wages, high turnover, no voice on the job, lack of job security and outsourced jobs.” The Teamsters have spent five years speaking to thousands of Amazon workers to develop the best strategies for organizing, the resolution states. The announcement comes during Prime Day, Amazon’s annual sales event and one of the busiest times of the year for workers in the company’s warehouses.
Push in states for $20 minimum wage as inflation persists
March 30, 2023 // Cindy Lee, the owner of a bowling alley in Endicott, New York, said she’s struggling to pay off loans taken out during the pandemic that kept her business afloat. “All this cost all at once is just going to kill us. I definitely will have to cut corners somewhere with employees if wages are raised,” said Lee, adding that she’d also have to increase prices on bowling, food and liquor. The federal minimum wage in the United States has stayed at $7.25 per hour since 2009, but states and some localities are free to set higher amounts. Thirty states have chosen to do so.
Wage activists thankful minimum wage has finally hit $15, but say it’s not enough
January 5, 2023 // “Inflation is putting real pressure on workers, and the minimum wage needs to keep up with their costs,” she said in the release. Lynch doesn’t believe another minimum wage increase would solve the problem, but said moving closer to a living wage would help. Tying minimum wage to inflation or indexing it could help workers keep up with rising costs, she added.
KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE FAST FOOD WORKERS IN CALIFORNIA
June 14, 2022 // There’s a lot going on here with California being a proving ground for another measure with far-reaching implications: The state’s fast food workers could also soon possess the power to bargain, if progressives get their way. Assembly Bill 257 – the so-called Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act – aims to essentially transform the state government into a union-like entity for the fast food industry. The bill calls for “minimum standards on wages, working hours” and more for this specific industry, and it would grant the labor commissioner extraordinary powers to act against companies and levy fines without even a peep of a formal filing from workers. The kicker for this bill: Worker complaints and associated demands would land in the hands of a “sector council,” which would possess board powers to set regulations at will for all fast food chains (all of the Pizza Huts and Popeyes and Taco Bells and every chain in between) with 30 or more California locations.The council would bypass the bargaining table and propel these new “standards” toward the state government for implementation and enforcement on issues of wages, working conditions, and so on. Kimberly Ricci, Labor Relations Link,
Wells Fargo employees pushing to organize union across bank’s workforce
June 3, 2022 // Workers at Wells Fargo with the Committee for Better Banks met with Wells Fargo’s CEO, Charles Scharf, in December 2020 over workers’ concerns with company policies, pay and benefits, but have been pushing for a follow-up meeting, to discuss recent scandals such as the fake diversity interviews.
‘You saw us coming’: Dollar General turns away activists and workers from shareholder meeting after they arrived late
May 27, 2022 // The Tennessean reported that about 125 organizers were present at the demonstration and the march down from a local park, calling for a wage of $15 an hour, a frequent demand of activist groups and progressives. (The federal minimum wage remains $7.25.)
Great Lakes Coffee in Detroit permanently closes after strike, unionization effort
May 25, 2022 // “It is permanent," attorney Frank Mamat of Dinsmore & Shohl, who represents the shop's coffee supplier, said Tuesday. "They (the coffee shop) weren't making money and they couldn't find people that felt comfortable working there because of omicron, and the customers felt the same way — they weren’t coming.”