Minimum wage isn't a liveable wage for most Americans. Push your company to establish a $15/hour minimum wage.
Claire is an organizer and designer based in Chicago. In the past year and a half she's worked on a mayoral, congressional and presidential race where she helped unionize a top-tier presidential campaign. She believes collective action leads to more informed citizens and a healthier society.
Over the past several years, there’s been widespread mobilization to implement a $15 minimum wage from grassroots organization in the streets to the halls of Congress. The federal minimum wage stands at $7.25 an hour and hasn't increased in a decade, leaving workers like us at CompanyName in financial duress. We cannot cover basic needs like housing, water, health, and transportation. In fact, there’s not a single state in the country where workers earning minimum wage are able to afford the essentials. The true current average living wage in the United States is $16.54 per hour. Eight states have already enacted phase-ins of a $15 minimum wage and more states are likely to follow as the cost of living increases nationwide. In order to stay competitive and pay us a livable wage we’re asking CompanyName to implement a $15 per hour starting salary.
Communities thrive when residents can work, shop and build their lives where they work. CompanyName could be a pillar in our community if it stepped up in advance of legislation to provide a decent salary for decent work. Increasing a company’s minimum wage has been proven to reduce employee turnover which saves the company hours of training and bureaucratic paperwork. What’s more we know we deserve to be able to pay our bills and save for provisions in an emergency. That’s nearly impossible for anything less than $15 per hour and it’s time that CompanyName offers a competitive salary that justly benefits it’s employees.