With the holiday break approaching, many ILR School students are looking forward to getting some well-deserved rest, eating home-cooked meals and reconnecting with family and friends back home.
Casey Platkin ’26 will do all those things while spearheading a grassroots campaign urging policymakers in San Mateo County, California, to establish an agency to help enforce the county’s new minimum wage law. It goes into effect April 1, 2023, and will impact thousands of farmworkers and others in a county – the fourth-richest in the U.S., according to U.S. News & World Report – that is bordered by San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
Platkin was a driving force behind legislation passed by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in November that will raise the minimum wage to $16.50. Without the increase, minimum wage would have continued to reflect the state’s wage base, which goes to $15.50 on Jan. 1.
“The policy had been discussed previously and we were certainly in touch with our local labor council and its executive, but Casey really did help kickstart a more focused discussion,” said David Burruto, chief of staff to Supervisor Dave Pine, who proposed the increase along with Board President Don Horsley.
While in high school, Platkin worked at his local golf course – driving the machine that picks up golf balls on the practice range and cleaning carts – when he realized that he and his co-workers were making between $1 and $1.50 less per hour than workers within...
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