Closing The Wage Gap

June 21, 2021

Delaware General Assembly passes $15 minimum wage, sends bill to Gov. John Carney

By Sarah Gamard, Published: Jun. 17, 2021 Delaware's minimum wage is expected to go to $15 an hour by 2025 after being passed late Thursday by the General Assembly. The House voted 26-15 along party lines to pass Senate Bill 15 by ...more

June 18, 2021

Lawmakers propose raising Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $15 an hour

By Juliana Tornabene, Published: Jun. 17, 2021 MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Two lawmakers from Madison have introduced legislation Thursday to raise the Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. State Sen. Melissa Agard (D-Madison) and State ...more

May 28, 2021

City of Wichita raises minimum wage for new employees to $15, plans to also raise it for current employees

By Eli Higgins for Kake May 27, 2021 Like most industries, the City of Wichita has found itself in a very competitive labor market during the pandemic, making it hard to find help. But after pledging a big change to its minimum wage, city ...more

May 17, 2021

CT nursing home workers postpone planned strikes

By: Susan Haigh for The Bulletin May 14, 2021 Unionized nursing home workers agreed to postpone strikes planned for Friday at 26 facilities across Connecticut after Gov. Ned Lamont's administration reached an agreement with union leaders ...more

May 10, 2021

Chipotle increasing hourly minimum wage to $15

By Cherryh Cansler for Fast Casual May 10, 2021 All Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant workers will earn $15 per hour by June, as well as have a chance to become a "restaurateur," the chain's highest general manager position. The average ...more

May 3, 2021

Fact Sheet: Biden-Harris Administration Issues an Executive Order to Raise the Minimum Wage to $15 for Federal Contractors

By White House Briefing Room April 27, 2021 for the The White House Today, President Biden is issuing an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage to hundreds of thousands of workers who are working on federal contracts. These workers are critical to the functioning of the federal government: from cleaning professionals and maintenance workers who ensure federal employees have safe and clean places to work, to nursing assistants who care for the nation’s veterans, to cafeteria and other food service workers who ensure military members have healthy and nutritious food to eat, to laborers who build and repair federal infrastructure. ...more

April 26, 2021

Punch Pizza announces it's raising starting wage to $15 an hour

By:Declan Desmond April 25, 2021 for Bring Me The News The $15-an-hour minimum wage movement has gained at least one key adopter in the Twin Cities: Punch Neapolitan Pizza. The local chain, which boasts 12 locations around the metro, made the announcement on Facebook this weekend: Punch says that, "starting today, all newly hired employees will start at $15/hr," and that "100% of our current employees are also getting a raise." "We think our employees are our number one asset," the post says. "When we ask customers why they return to Punch the top two answers, closely ranked, are the quality of our pizza and our engaged, friendly employees." As WCCO notes, Punch is "one of the first Minnesota restaurant companies to make this leap to a $15 minimum wage." The station says the company will also be expanding its training programs along with the wage increase. ...more

April 19, 2021

Addressing racial health inequities includes addressing the minimum wage

By Kashmira S. Chawla, Nancy Oriol and Ashley O'Donoghue for The Hill April 18, 2021 Over the past year, we have witnessed the national outcry against our “race-based caste system,” the frailty of our social safety nets and economic precarity disproportionately affecting communities of color. This stems from barriers rooted in poverty and discrimination with downstream collateral of inaccessible housing, education, transportation, healthcare and job security with paid sick leave and a living wage. It is well established that poverty and low-income status are associated with worse health status and outcomes. Currently, there is a feverish inward focus on increasing inclusion, representation and research to challenge structural racism within healthcare systems. However, empowering patients entangled in this complex web of racially-driven societal structures and intergenerational poverty cannot be achieved with insulated healthcare initiatives and policy changes. One of the ways to do this is to support federal policy that affects one of the tenet social determinants of health: a living minimum wage. ...more

April 6, 2021

Editorial: Marin equity divide makes income initiative a worthy experiment

By: Marin Independent Journal Editorial Board April 3, 2021 Turning talk into action, Marin Community Foundation and Marin County are joining forces to launch a universal basic income initiative aimed at providing 125 low-income single minority mothers with $1,000 per month for two years. The goal is to bridge the economic equity chasm and racial divide in our county. The foundation is committing $3 million and the county is investing $400,000 for the trial to see how a guaranteed income can help address poverty and racial inequities. “We are starting with those moms with the greatest aggregate of challenges; low income, young children and facing the daily travails and insults of overt and covert racial discrimination,” said Thomas Peters, the foundation’s chief executive. ...more

March 29, 2021

The $15 Minimum Wage Isn’t the Only Way to Raise Worker Pay

By: Katie Bach and Zeynep Ton for Politico March 29, 2021 To the disappointment of many on the left, President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 relief package did not include an increase in the federal minimum wage, dimming the prospect of setting a national wage floor at $15. But there is another step the administration can take to push companies to pay more: disclosure. There’s a business maxim that goes, “What gets measured, gets managed.” If it’s not possible to pass legislation to impose higher minimum wages, the administration can still put upward pressure on wages by requiring companies to disclose data on their workers’ take-home pay. Pay disclosures would let employers, employees and investors all know if workers are earning enough to support themselves and their families. ...more