Restaurant Workers Deserve a Livable Wage, Too
The federal minimum wage for tipped workers hasn’t gone up in over 30 years. Workers in several states are taking on the industry to change that.
Austerity, growing inequality, and the economic and political domination of billionaires, bankers, hedge funds, and giant corporations make the current moment ripe for birthing a movement that can radically transform the country and the world. This is a time of great peril, but also of extraordinary opportunity and—yes—reasons for hope.
The last four decades have been characterized by unrelenting attacks on the working class, the weakening of unions and the financialization of capitalism. The fiscal crisis of 2007-2008, the burgeoning wealth gap, and the flood of money from corporations and the rich drowning our democracy have exposed the nation’s political, moral, and economic decay, creating conditions that beg for an alternative to a system that increasingly only works for the super-rich.
In this environment, anything that unions can do alone, with dwindling power, will be insufficient. The challenge for labor, at a moment of historic weakness, is to figure out how unions can support and be involved in movements and campaigns that expand, rather than narrow, the scope and scale of what we are organizing and bargaining for. It may seem counterintuitive, but it is thinking bigger and broadening our vision, goals, and demands—even at a moment of weakness—that offers a path to resurgent unions and a more equal and just country and world.
Continue reading in New Labor Forum.
by Helen H. Abraha
The federal minimum wage for tipped workers hasn’t gone up in over 30 years. Workers in several states are taking on the industry to change that.
by Mariah Montgomery
New research shows that Uber and Lyft's favorite argument against raising driver pay — that it would make trips unaffordable — isn't borne out by data. Wall Street greed is a better explanation for why your most recent ride was so pricey.
by Max Lawson
More women are in positions of power than 50 years ago, but under a fairer system we would have made much more progress on gender equality.
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