Great news for L.A. workers!

New York fast food workers are close to a $15/hr min. wage. Tell Gov. Cuomo TODAY to set an example for the whole country.

On July 21, 2015, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a minimum wage hike in all unincorporated areas of the county, raising wages to $15 an hour by 2020. The county’s pay hike schedule matches the $15 city-wide minimum wage approved by the  the Los Angeles City Council back on May 19, 2015.

Our work is not over! We need all of L.A. County, all of California…the entire country to raise the minimum wage that hasn’t kept up with inflation since 1968. In fact, it’s lost 8.1% of its purchasing power just since 2009. The labor movement, led by SEIU, started this fight for $15 both here in Los Angeles and across the country. We won’t stop fighting until all hardworking people earn enough to support themselves and their families.

On April 15, SEIU Local 99 Members marched in solidarity with fast food workers, airport workers, home care workers, and others across the nation in their fight for a $15 minimum wage.

Read the FACTS about minimum wage increases and how they help our communities.

Listen to Child Care Provider Betty Simmons on why she supports the Fight for $15!

Here’s some background on this movement to win at least $15 an hour and the right to form a union…for ALL workers!

How does raising the minimum wage help everybody?

Working families’ wages are completely out of balance with what people need to survive. Even families that currently earn a good living now experience wage freezes and have fewer protections and benefits. It used to be that jobs, pay and benefits were getting better and better as the years wore on. Now they just get worse and worse.

The daily struggle to pay for basic needs has everyone from working parents to recent college graduates running on empty. Even union workers are being hit. When wages outside the union are so low, they lower the bar at the bargaining table.

At the same time, the super-rich and giant corporations are hitting all-time high profits. The women and men who make those profits possible—including union workers—are left unable to make ends meet, are asked to pay more for health care coverage or are just left without basic protections like sick pay and pensions. And those same corporations raking in the trillions? They figure out ways to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, starving our schools and other public services.

Here’s the bottom line: the system is so broken that the gap between the super-rich and the rest of us hasn’t been this big since right before the Great Depression in 1928.

Isn’t this just about fast food workers?

A couple years ago in November 2012, hundreds of fast food workers in New York City went on strike, calling for $15 an hour and the right to form a union. At first people thought they were crazy. But they started everyone thinking.

After that first walkout, thousands of fast food workers in nearly 200 cities joined the movement. Walk-outs and other actions even occurred at fast food restaurants all over the world. Now the movement has grown way beyond fast food—calling for higher wages, union rights and better jobs for all working people. Airport personnel, home care workers, retail employees, school workers, early educators and others across the country are joining the call for decent wages and a voice on the job. It’s truly a global movement now, with actions in 33 countries and 6 continents.

Is this “Fight for $15” really doing any good?

Yes, workers are winning all over the country. We scored a huge victory right here at Local 99 when we negotiated a $15 minimum wage with the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2014, the second largest school district in the nation. Now other school employees around the country are looking at us, saying “let’s fight for $15!” The courage of those fast food workers in 2012 has led to a $15 minimum wage in the cities of Seattle and San Francisco. California and other states have raised their minimum wages.

I already make more than $15. How is this my issue?

Income inequality is everyone’s issue. Things are getting worse. More and more families are sinking into “low income” status. And it costs all of us—a lot. The National Employment Law Project calculates that McDonald’s and the rest of the fast food industry cost taxpayers (that’s us!) $7 Billion in public assistance each year. Add in all the other low-wage industries—retail, service, early education, janitorial, security guards…the list goes on and on—and it’s clear our economy isn’t working.

How will we change things?

There is strength in numbers. The more we stand together with our union sisters and brothers—and all workers—the stronger we will be. When we all join in, it sends a strong clear message to Wall Street that we’re one community, standing strong together. There are so many things that we all agree on: quality education, reliable child care, access to healthcare, dignified retirement, good jobs. Let’s pledge to come together and make lasting improvements. And let’s make sure we’re talking about this with our co-workers, friends, family and neighbors.

If wages go up, won’t prices just go up? How do we ever get ahead?

One thing the corporate billionaires love is for nothing to change. Especially now, when wages are lower and profits higher than they’ve been for decades. One of their big strategies is “divide and conquer”—if they can get us to complain that the price of hamburgers will go up if the guy flipping burgers makes a decent wage, then we won’t support that fast food employee. But we must fight for every worker to earn enough to support themselves and their family. And when workers make more, they spend more, which helps small businesses and the local economy (and helps fund public services like schools, colleges and child care).

The middle class is seriously ill. We have to fight to prevent the complete death of the middle class. If our minimum wage had kept pace with productivity and cost of living over the years it would be $21 an hour now. Demanding everyone make $15 an hour isn’t outrageous: it’s common sense. Read more about why we need to fight to raise wages.

Is it really that important to vote in every election?

Think about it. Who raised our wages to $15 at LAUSD? School Board members. Who changed the minimum wage in Seattle and San Francisco? City Council members. Who increased California’s minimum wage? Our state legislators and Governor Brown. Who took away union rights and worker strength in Wisconsin? Their Governor.

Those corporate billionaires we talked about a couple paragraphs ago? They vote in EVERY SINGLE ELECTION. When we vote—and get involved in our union’s voter turnout efforts by calling voters and knocking on their doors—we level the playing field. An ordinary working person’s vote holds just as much power as a billionaire’s vote.

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