I recently attended Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) introducing the Senate companion to the Living Wage For All Act at the Senate Swamp — which would bring the highest minimum wage ever introduced in U.S. history to the Senate floor.
There were many powerhouses there such as Representatives Delia Ramirez and Analilia Mejia who both spoke on their experiences about growing up with parents who had to work several jobs just to make ends meet. Parents who couldn’t stay home to hear how their children’s day at school were because they are running to the next job for the day. Stories which resonated with me as well because I too was raised in household with a parent that had 3 jobs at one point to provide for her daughter.
The bill has 25 co-sponsors and the backing of a coalition of more than 100 labor, civil rights, and economic justice organizations — including the National Education Association, the NAACP, SEIU, AFT (whom the president Randi Weingarten was there as well and spoke in support) , RWDSU, the Center for Popular Democracy, and PolicyLink.
While there, I connected with Welton Pride from the National Urban League who brought many of his peers in support of this movement and Mica Jumpp from the National Council of Negro Woman and it was amazing to meet and be in community with so many other young, Black professionals supporting in this space.
For those who may not know what the bill would do:
- Raise the federal minimum wage to $25/hour for every worker, with large corporations phasing in first and small businesses given a longer timeline
- Eliminate every sub-minimum wage — including for tipped workers, workers with disabilities, youth workers, and incarcerated workers
- Align wages with what people actually need to live: the MIT Living Wage Calculator finds a single adult needs at least $25/hour to cover basic costs nationwide, and $30/hour in higher-cost regions
Senator Murphy and CT Senator Blumenthal both led with powerful words in support of this bill. Both mentioned how many lives this would impact in terms of how many people would be better able to afford to live, especially with inflation and by working one job. It was nice to hear them call out the fact that if we can have a trillion-dollar CEO then we can have a minimum threshold of an hourly wage of $25 dollars across the nation.
I’d like to close by sharing about a CT native who spoke about her life experience. Her name is Johana, and she’s a Certified Nursing Assistant who shared her personal experience working two jobs just to make ends meet — despite her having years of experience in the field. She mentioned only making enough to feed her kids and pay her rent, so no money to save or invest. Her story made me think about the work we do and put a human face on exactly why this bill and having a real living wage matters.