A group of progressive members of Congress introduced a $15 an hour national minimum wage bill on Wednesday as hundreds of federal contract workers went on strike to protest their job conditions.
Introduced in the Senate by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and in the House by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the bill would raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and make it easier for federal workers to join a union. Republicans have so far resisted raising the minimum wage. Hillary Clinton claims she supports a $15 an hour wage in large metropolitan areas, but in a completely out-of-touch-with-real-people way, doesn’t believe it should be implemented nationwide. Ms. Clinton has no specific plans for initiating a living wage. Bernie Sanders does.
Last year, President Barack Obama, in support of Bernie Sanders’ position, issued an executive order raising the wage for federal contract workers to $10.10 an hour. Even with this, Sontia Bailey, a federally-contracted cashier at the U.S. Capitol, said she “struggled to survive” on $10.59 an hour. She had to take a second job at Kentucky Fried Chicken, and works 70 hours a week.
“KFC actually pays me more than Uncle Sam,” she said in support of the $15 minimum wage bill.
“I’m here because America needs to know that long hours and low pay hurt working women and families.”
Her hours had taken a toll on her health, Bailey said, explaining that she had a miscarriage three weeks ago.
“The truth is, I couldn’t afford to weep. I had to get back to work, so I could have a proper and decent funeral for my baby last Saturday. A living wage and a union is the only way working women can get ahead, and stay ahead.”
Bailey’s comments were echoed by Charles Gladden, a Senate contract worker who makes $11.33 an hour. Gladden was homeless, sleeping outside a Metro station a few blocks from the White House, until a crowdfunding campaign raised enough for him to live in an apartment.
“Workers shouldn’t have to rely on charity in order to survive,” he said. “We need justice. Even though I now have a roof over my head, I’m still worried about holding on to it. … The truth is that all the workers out here are just like me, we all are just one step away from being homeless, we are all one meal away from being hungry.”
Bailey and Gladden were attending a strike made up of senate food service workers and janitors, as well as workers from the Capitol Visitor Center, the Pentagon, Union Station, the National Zoo, and even the Smithsonian Institution. Good Jobs Nation, an advocacy group backed by the ‘Change to Win’ labor coalition, organized the strike. Joining Bernie Sanders’ cause, capitol contract workers went on strike in April, after workers in more than 230 cities walked off the job as a part of the union-backed ‘Fight for $15 movement,’ calling on corporations to raise their wages.
Bernie Sanders stated,
“I think if you work 40 hours a week, you have a right not to live in poverty. The current federal minimum wage is a starvation wage. It’s got to be raised to a living wage.”
The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009, and would be more than $26 an hour today if the wage had kept pace with productivity and inflation since 1968. Bernie Sanders wants to fix this situation.
