Sanders Introduces Bill for $15-an-Hour Minimum Wage
WASHINGTON, July 22 – Addressing hundreds of low-wage workers who have gone on strike for a living wage, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said legislation he introduced today would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
“It is a national disgrace that millions of full-time workers are living in poverty and millions more are forced to work two or three jobs just to pay their bills,” Sanders said at the outdoor rally near the Capitol. “In the year 2015, a job must lift workers out of poverty, not keep them in it. The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage and must be raised to a living wage.”
Sanders said he was proud to stand with Good Jobs Nation and the Fight for 15 organizations, groups which have put a spotlight on the need to raise the minimum wage and helped make the push for better pay a cause that most Americans support.
Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sponsored a companion version of the bill in the House to phase in increases in the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) co-sponsored the Senate bill to more than double the $7.25 an hour required under current law and close a loophole that has let employers pay tipped workers just $2.13 an hour.
Sanders also renewed his call for an executive order by President Barack Obama to increase the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $15 an hour and make it easier for them to join a union. In April, Sanders co-signed a letter with Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) calling on the Senate to require Senate contractors to provide a living wage, affordable health care and other benefits to all workers.
The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009. Increasing the minimum wage would directly benefit 62 million workers who currently make less than $15 an hour, including over half of African-American workers and close to 60 percent of Latino workers. If the minimum wage had kept up with productivity and inflation since 1968, it would be more than $26 an hour today.
Despite resistance by the Republican-run House and Senate, most Americans favor raising the minimum wage. A Hart Research Associates survey in January found that 63 percent of the American people support increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
State and cities are acting on their own. New York’s Wage Board today is expected to approve a new $15 minimum hourly pay for the state’s 200,000 fast food workers. Washington, D.C., and Kansas City, Missouri, are considering raising the wage. Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco already passed ordinances raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour. Twenty-six states already enacted minimum wage increases.
Ahead of the rally, more than 200 economists and labor experts released a letter endorsing Sanders’ legislation. The letter was signed by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich; Robert Pollin of the University of Massachusetts; James Galbraith of the University of Texas; Howard Stein of the University of Michigan and others.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-introduces-bill-for-15-an-hour-minimum-wage
BERNIE SANDERS ON NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS
Bernie Sanders respects and values Native Americans and believes the U.S. needs to support and work with our First Americans to improve their standard of living. Bernie supports the right of Native American tribes to self-govern and have sovereign jurisdiction over their lands. He also supports directly acknowledging our continuing history of mistreatment and racism against Native Americans and actively promotes measures to achieve justice for them.
Tribal Sovereignty: Native American tribes should have sovereign control over their lands.
Healthcare: Healthcare for Native Americans should be improved to better address medical needs and improve outcomes.
Acknowledging Racism: The history of gross mistreatment of Native Americans should be brought to and maintained in the public’s attention. Stereotypes and slurs against Native Americans should be discouraged and denounced.
Tribal Sovereignty
Native tribes should have jurisdiction over crimes committed on their lands.
Whoa, what does that mean?
While much lip service is paid to the sovereignty of Native American groups within U.S. borders, the legal reality is a quagmire. In many cases, if a crime is committed on a reservation by somebody who is not a member of the tribe, the tribal government is not permitted the jurisdiction to prosecute the perpetrator under their own legal system.
What has Bernie done to strengthen the sovereignty of Native tribes?
Bernie co-sponsored the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, which would give each tribal government jurisdiction over domestic violence crimes and provide funding for tribal criminal justice systems and victim services.
How else has this issue come into play?
The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would be built across Indian country. This does not have the consent of those peoples to be built and would have negative effects. Learn about some of the potentially damaging effects of the Keystone XL pipeline here.
Where does Bernie stand on the Keystone XL pipeline?
Bernie vehemently opposes the pipeline. Learn more about his environmental policies at the Earth & The Environment category page.
Healthcare
Healthcare for Native Americans should be improved to better address the health issues that affect them. Native Americans experience disproportionately high rates of particular health problems, and also face challenges in receiving effective healthcare.
What has Bernie voted for to support addressing this issue?
Bernie voted for Healthcare for Indigenous Peoples to take a wide variety of actions to address healthcare issues facing Native Americans. Learn more about Bernie’s work around increasing the social safety net — including healthcare — for all Americans at the category page here.
Acknowledging Racism
Bernie believes we need to immediately apologize for the damage our historical discrimination and racism has caused Native Americans, and that stereotypes and slurs against them should be actively denounced. The continuing history of mistreatment of indigenous peoples by the United States is still an issue that needs to be remedied and receives little public attention. Formal public acknowledgement of America’s role in this mistreatment is a small step in the right direction.
What are some examples?
For centuries, names and images have been appropriated from the cultures of indigenous peoples, stripped of context, twisted, and adapted to mock and perpetuate belittling stereotypes and tokens. This is a major problem that remains widespread today.
The American Baseball League’s Cleveland Indians team and National Football League’s Washington, D.C. Redskins team are both professional sports teams which use images as mascots that stereotype Native Americans. Additionally, “redskin” is commonly used as a derogatory racial slur to refer to Native American individuals.
What has Bernie supported along these lines?
Bernie voted to apologize “for the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native Peoples by citizens of the United States.”
Where does Bernie stand?
Bernie signed a formal congressional letter denouncing name of the Washington Redskins as racist and urged the NFL to push to rename the team.
http://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-native-american-rights/
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