This November, we could raise California’s minimum wage to $15

The Raise California’s Wage Act of 2016

Too many American families work and work but can’t keep their heads above water.

And we will have a chance to make a difference at the ballot box this November.

Workers across California have hope for better wages and a better life for their families thanks to a ballot initiative filed  by Fight for $15 worker leaders and SEIU California.

The Raise California’s Wage and Paid Sick Days Act of 2016 is the only statewide initiative that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2020 and guarantee that every full-time worker will receive at least six days per year to care for themselves and their families. Small businesses would have until 2021 to meet the $15 per hour minimum.

And as workers throughout the country continue to fight to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, SEIU Local 99 members at LAUSD continue to lead by actually seeing the District’s minimum increase to $15 an hour on July 1, 2016. Workers already earning above $15 will see an additional 2.5% increase also effective July 1. These raises were negotiated in our last contract and the increase in the minimum wage at LAUSD raises the wage floor significantly for all workers. This will be critical as we also begin to prepare for our 2017 full contract negotiations this year.

When SEIU supported minimum wage workers in New York when they launched their strike for $15 an hour a few years ago, many said it was crazy. Now, most believe it’s long overdue and over 11 million people have won better pay. The rapidly growing “Fight for $15” movement has mobilized millions of underpaid workers, including home care workers and child care providers, to demand significant policy changes in response to the low wages and tough times they face.

“Because of the education funding guarantee (Prop. 98), raising the minimum wage will ultimately mean more money for our schools,” said LAUSD Light Bus Driver Latosha Thompson. “When Californians’ incomes rise, more money will go into this education fund.”

We know what we need to make it in California today. We need a $15 minimum wage. Not only does it lift up those making poverty wages, it brings a long-overdue increase to the wage floor that affects all workers. We also need at least six paid sick days per year to care for ourselves and our families. Anything less jeopardizes public health.

Together we can win the fight for $15!

“As child care providers for low-income families, we see more clearly than most how much working families struggle,” said Tonia McMillian, a child care provider from Bellflower. “And I know this is the ballot measure I can trust because it’s led by people like me and the parents who rely on me to keep their kids safe and learning while they work in low-wage jobs.”

“People who work full time are fulfilling their most basic social responsibility. As such, they should earn enough to live on. A full-time worker with two kids needs at least $30,135 this year to be safely out of poverty. That’s $15 an hour for a forty-hour workweek. Any amount below this usually requires government make up the shortfall—using tax payments from the rest of us to finance food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance, and other kinds of help.” —Economist Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton