Contributing Writer
(Special from Facing South) — 2022 marks 10 years since fast food workers in New York first went on strike to demand higher wages, better working conditions, and the right to unionize — sparking the Fight For $15 movement. Since that time, the movement has gained traction, with California raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour and several other states passing legislation that will gradually do so.
As the ongoing global pandemic has drawn attention to the fact that the people who keep the country running are overworked and underpaid, workers have continued to strike for higher wages and union rights. In many cases, their demands are being met.
Showing the tremendous strides made by Fight for $15, a record number of states and localities are raising their wages this year. In the recent National Employment Law Project (NELP) report titled “Raises from Coast to Coast in 2022,” Yannet Lathrop details how on the first day of this year 56 cities, counties, and states across the country raised their minimum wage, with many of these jurisdictions now having a minimum wage that exceeds $15 an hour. An additional 26 jurisdictions will raise the minimum wage later this year.
In the first nine years since its founding, the Fight for $15 movement resulted in “$150 billion in higher pay for 26 million workers,” Lathrop notes.
But these victories have not been evenly felt by all workers nationwide. “Twenty states have refused to raise their wage floors above the...
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