Sometimes, big waves come from small places, just not in the way the workers in a New England town ever imagined. On Tuesday, voters in Portland, Maine, have an opportunity to make history at the ballot box.
A community-initiated referendum seeks to end the subminimum wage for tipped workers. This practice is a racist and sexist legacy of slavery, created after Emancipation so Southern employers could avoid paying formerly enslaved workers, particularly Black women, wages for jobs such as waitressing.
The Portland measure would end the unfair practice of forcing workers to reach the minimum wage through tips. If passed, a minimum wage of $18 an hour, with tips on top, would be phased in over several years. Just to underscore: Workers could still take tips but wouldn’t need to rely on the kindness of strangers to cover their bills. The new law would also provide a just wage for all workers, including those with disabilities, youth, and gig workers.
Though it’s not in the national headlines at the moment, the politics of minimum wage in America has shifted dramatically. Minimum-wage ballot measures have galvanized voters for several election cycles now, especially those less likely to turn out otherwise. That makes sense after decades of poverty-level wage floors and growing economic inequality. Public opinion research shows the one fair wage proposal — a fair minimum for all workers, with tips on top rather than replacing that wage floor — is enormously popular across party...
Northwest University Kano (NWUK), has described as false, baseless and misleading the viral video claiming academic deficiency of Kano Emir, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II. This is contained in a stat...