Across the country, workers are on the march for $15 an hour and a better future, and our movement is growing stronger every day. The $15 movement has already made remarkable progress this year. Six months ago, on the eve of the first Seattle fast food strike, who would have guessed that the $15 minimum wage would be at the center of this year’s elections?
And yet even before a single vote was cast, there was no doubt that the next mayor of Seattle would be a supporter of moving towards a $15 minimum wage — because both candidates expressed their clear support. And Kshama Sawant won her race for city council after effectively turning it into a referendum on the $15 minimum wage.
Ballots continue to be counted in the close race on the SeaTac Good Jobs Initiative, but no matter how it turns out, airport workers successfully brought intense local, national, and even international attention to the crisis of growing income inequality in our country.
More and more people are coming to understand that raising wages is the right thing to do — and it’s also good for the economy. When workers get more pay, they spend it on basics like food, rent, and repairs.
That puts money right back into the economy, boosting demand and kickstarting a cycle of prosperity that benefits everyone.