minimum wage
Report: Fight for $15 movement tackles racial wealth gap
In 2012, a group of 200 fast-food workers walked off the job in New York City and demanded a $15 hourly wage and a union. In the decade since, the “Fight for $15,” as the movement came to be called, has secured higher wages for more than 26 million workers, lowered the racial wealth gap in many states and pumped more than $87 billion into local economies, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Employment Law Project (NELP).
Restaurant workers would stay in the industry if wages rose, new report finds
Restaurant owners have reported difficulty finding workers as many states and cities lift the pandemic restrictions that led to mass layoffs in the sector last year. But the vast majority of restaurant workers say they would stay in the industry if provided with a stable, livable wage, according to a new report from One Fair Wage and the U.C. Berkeley Food Labor Research Center.
D.C. city council may overturn voter measure on tipped minimum wage
In a packed hearing that ran into the late evening, Washington, D.C.’s city council debated Monday whether the council should repeal a recently-passed ballot initiative to raise the city’s tipped minimum wage. Initiative 77, passed in June by District voters, would raise the tipped minimum wage to match the non-tipped minimum wage by 2026.
McDonald’s reneges on wage promise
McDonald’s has failed to comply with a 2015 promise to raise workers’ wages, organizers say. The chain had said that it would raise its workers’ hourly pay to at least one dollar above minimum wage.
Puzder out as Labor nominee
Andrew Puzder, President’s Trump’s pick for Secretary of Labor and the CEO of the fast-food chain that owns of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., has withdrawn his nomination, says the New York Times.
Trump appointments promise to reverse Obama’s policies on environment, public lands and labor
President-elect Donald Trump's lineup for agency heads is comprised of people who have deeply opposed the policies of President Obama on social programs, public lands, the environment, labor issues, and veterans affairs, says The New York Times.
Stagnant wages and higher injury rates for workers in U.S. food chain
One of every seven American workers, 21.5 million in all, are employed in the food system, which recovered relatively quickly from the 2008-09 recession. But the "workers themselves have not seen positive changes," says a new report. "Poor working conditions, below-average wages and discriminatory and abusive practices are commonplace across the food chain."
Economic growth will end poverty, Trump says; Clinton would raise minimum wage
In statements to a campaign to end hunger and allieviate poverty, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said his proposals for economic growth will "create jobs and restore vitality to rural and urban pockets of poverty." Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton listed an array of programs to boost impoverished areas and their residents with the goal of cutting poverty in half in 10 years.
Will a higher California pay rate mean more machines and fewer ag jobs?
Industry insiders say the agreement between legislators and labor unions to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022 in California "could lead to job losses throughout agriculture, escalate the push toward mechanization and send some farm operations out of state," said Capital Press.