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Demos Vice President of Policy and Research Tamara Draut issued the following statement:
"After two months of deliberations, hearings, and moving testimonies, the wage board created by Governor Cuomo voted yesterday to recommend a wage increase in a series of steps to $15 an hour by 2018 in New York City and by 2021 in the rest of the state. Fast-food workers’ decision to challenge their powerful corporate bosses was a huge risk—and it paid off.
...while fast food may be an extreme case, it is hardly the only industry – in New York or nationwide – where front-line workers are underpaid and inequality is metastasizing. In fact, our economy is increasingly built on job growth in the most unequal industries: a trend that concentrates more and more income at the top and makes it even more difficult for working people to share in the benefits of economic growth.
That’s why the push to raise wages won’t stop with fast food –or with New York.
Chanting "$15.00 and a union," thousands of federal contract workers walked off their jobs yesterday, led by the Senate's cafeteria workers who serve Senators their food. They were joined by Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, and members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, led by Keith Ellison (D-Minn) and Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz). Sanders announced they were introducing legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15.00 an hour.
The New York fast food wage board today recommended a wage increase in a series of steps to $15 an hour by 2018 in New York City and by 2021 in the rest of the state.
While the highest income bracket noticed a drop another source that analyzes the wealthiest one percent found that in 2008, 99 percent voted, which shows that the very peak of wealth controls most of what happens in America.
Five years ago today, I attended the bill signing for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which promised to restore sensible safeguards and standards for the financial sector so that the devastation of the financial crisis felt mostly by low- and middle-income Americans would not be repeated.
Given the David and Goliath odds that reformers faced in challenging the sector with the most influence in Washington, we had much to celebrate—and still do.
Five years ago on July 16, 2010, Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Act. It promised unprecedented regulation of the financial sector so that the devastation of the 2008 financial crisis that was visited mostly on middle- and low-income Americans in the form of the Great Recession would not be repeated. Though the law was far from perfect, Dodd-Frank includes many important reforms, from bulwarks against the systemic risks of casino capitalism to protection against predatory consumer lending.
This checklist was created in partnership with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
Debt-free college means all students in America should be able graduate without debt. This big idea would expand economic opportunity, expand America's economy, and improve quality of life for millions of people.
Debt-free college is a result that can be achieved through multiple means.