In a small town in San Francisco’s East Bay, the 22,000 workers, 2,227 of who are minimum wage workers, received a bump in pay. Emeryville, CA, is home to the highest minimum wage in the county at $15 an hour. Emeryville’s wage hike went to $14.44 overnight where Los Angeles’ $15 will make an appearance in 2020.
Seattle’s wage hike to $15 is also being slow walked to 2017, but the genie is out of the bottle and the workers have gotten a taste of what a living wage can afford them and others see their gains and now know it can be done—done without having their wages slow walked.
Now eight cities in San Francisco's South Bay are contemplating raising its minimum wage.
What some of the wage slaves, who make more than $15 an hour, don’t understand is when the people earning $9 an hour wage that goes to $15 it will push all other wages up, and they probably will not even after ask for as raise. Case in point, dishwashers now make $15 an hour and then the cook, who has always made $15 to $16 an hour, now will get an increase.
The $15 minimum wage will float all boats. If this goes national as Bernie Sanders wants to do when elected president. It would stop the rise of inequality and restart the middle class, which would let everyone who wants a job have one and stop the drain on our social resources allowing the money saved to be used in education and rebuilding our infrastructure creating even more jobs.
The capitalist system works when there is cash in the pockets of the many and not so well when just 61 families have all the cash in their in offshore accounts to avoid taxes. So it’s time to pry some cash out of their pockets by making them pay higher taxes and force them to move their money back to the U.S. or their home country or lose their citizenship.
The Have Nots of the world are starting to understand what the hedge funders and big banks have done to the world’s economy and are demanding change—it is the young people whose futures are at stake and if they are smart they will be voting for Bernie Sander.
Poverty, like death, robs us our futures. It's time for people to stand up for what's right. Emeryville is the little town that could be the tipping point for the $15 an hour minimum wage in this country.
I hope that I am wrong, but what I see at this time is our unions are going to be in the fight of their existence. This is the most perilous time of our life. The life we had is threatened like never before. Unions are the largest organized group of people who can save our country if things keep going the way they are heading at this time. We need to all stand together for power, but we each must prepare and plan to take care of ourselves and our families. We can fight the big fight and not be distracted by worry about things that can and should already be taken care of. For instance, stashing at least one month’s pay and at least a month or even a year’s worth of food, whether the food is staples (pasta, rice, canned goods) and meat or chicken in the freezer. Keep your vehicles' tanks full and if possible a gas can full. It’s in your best interest to also save money for house or rent payments plus extra. This is not new thinking for us old trade workers who had to prepare when...
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