The Fight for 15

**Update** New York Times Sept. 4 Op-ed on Minimum wage and Presidential candidates (but not Green Party candidate Jill Stein see also here and here)

Breaking: NYT Editorial for $15 Wage: "broad prosperity requires rising wages, not a race to the bottom" http://t.co/PqufLHJiwJ #FightFor15

— Fight For 15 (@fightfor15) September 5, 2015

From the NYT Op-ed

The debate over the federal minimum wage in the nascent presidential campaign is really two debates: one among Democrats and one among Republicans.

Democrats are divided on how much to raise the minimum, currently $7.25 an hour. Hillary Rodham Clinton has spoken favorably of a Democratic bill for a raise to $12 by 2020. Senator Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, as well as several congressional Democrats, support $15 an hour by 2020. Is $12 adequate to ensure a minimally decent living? Would $15 be economically feasible?

Going to $12 by 2020 would bring the minimum more in line with historical benchmarks, including wage and price inflation. But it is a stretch to believe that $12 an hour in 2020 would provide a minimally decent living. In 14 states and Washington, D.C., the cost of living for one person is already near or above $12 an hour, according to data compiled by economists at M.I.T. In most of the remaining states, one person now requires an hourly wage of $10 to $11 to eke out a living.

Fifteen dollars, phased in gradually, is the better option. It would be adequate and feasible, assuming that policy makers also take steps to raise middle-class wages, which would include tough enforcement of updated laws on overtime, scheduling, worker classification and other labor issues.

continued

keeping worker pay low to discourage capital investment is a recipe for a faltering economy and ignores history, in which new technology has both replaced and created jobs.

The job of economic leaders is to help ensure not only rising profits but also rising wages at all pay levels. The Democratic candidates get that a robust minimum wage is vital to that challenge. The Republicans do not. 

In 2013 the Green Party called for a living wage and basic guaranteed income

The Green Party's national platform endorses the liveable wage and the guaranteed basic income:

Green Party activists noted that a minimum wage that matched current productivity growth would be more than $16.50 an hour (http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/the-minimum-wage-and-economic-growth) and said that this figure should factor into the calculation for a liveable-wage guarantee.

My Original Article
Until we can realize the problems with capitalism as a system based on inequality and establish real equality at work in the form of Socialism/Marxism, (see here and here) I am supporting the next best thing which is the Fight for $15/hour minimum wage.  It is well past time.

Fight for 15

and while minimum wage should be at least $18 an hour

Senate Democrats are patting themselves on the back for pushing for $12 an hour in 2020 with the Raise the Wage Act.  

This is really good though 

The legislation would also eliminate an exemption for restaurants and other companies that allows them to pay tipped workers less than the minimum wage.

Liberal groups are also backing this bill like CBBP

   

The Raise the Wage Act would give nearly 20 million women—30% of all working women in the U.S.—a raise #RaisetheWage #12by2020

— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) June 15, 2015