New Jersey
Advocates for $15-an-hour federal minimum wage press Biden for a meeting – New Jersey Monitor
WASHINGTON — The Poor Individuals’s Marketing campaign is urging President Joe Biden to satisfy with low-income staff earlier than the group’s march on Washington, D.C., on June 18 to advocate for a $15 federal minimal wage.
“What we can’t do is be silent anymore,” Rev. William Barber II, the co-chair of the Poor Individuals’s Marketing campaign, stated throughout a press convention Monday at Nationwide Metropolis Christian Church in Washington, D.C.
Barber, who can also be the pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, stated the anti-poverty marketing campaign needs Biden to have a gathering with low-wage staff, spiritual leaders and economists.
The Poor Individuals’s Marketing campaign additionally requested a gathering with members of Congress for June 15.
The present federal minimal wage is $7.25 an hour and has not elevated since 2009. Biden has urged Congress to extend the minimal to $15 however Democrats’ makes an attempt to take action haven’t succeeded.
Analysis has proven {that a} gradual improve within the federal minimal wage to $15 would profit girls and staff of colour, notably within the South.
A 40-hour work week with a minimal wage of $15 an hour comes out to an annual wage of about $31,000. That wage could be simply above the federal poverty traces for a household of 4, which is $27,750 a yr.
Biden in April of final yr signed an government order to require a $15 minimal wage for federal contractors equivalent to nursing assistants at Veterans Administration hospitals, upkeep staff, cleansing employees and meals service staff.
On Monday, Barber stated that the practically 40 million folks residing in poverty are additionally struggling essentially the most from inflation.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that shopper costs for meals have elevated 8.8% in March this yr, the most important 12-month improve since Might 1981. “Inside meals, costs for meals at residence rose 10.0 % and costs for meals away from residence rose 6.9 %,” in accordance with BLS.
“The one means up is to raise from the underside,” Barber stated.
Beth Schaffer of South Carolina, showing nearly on the press occasion, stated she works greater than 60 hours per week, seven days per week, and continues to be struggling to pay her lease.
“The minimal wage is sentencing us to poverty,” she stated.