Atlanta Activists, Workers Applaud New York, California on $15 Wage Laws
With additional reporting by Matthew Charles Cardinale.
(APN) ATLANTA — Workers, activists, and elected officials in Metro Atlanta and across the U.S. applauded the decisions made by Govs. Jerry Brown (D-CA) and Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) to sign into state law two respective state minimum wage increases to ultimately reach fifteen dollars per hour over a period of about five years, both on Monday, April 04, 2016.
“I think it is great what California and New York have done,” Dorothy Adams, a Burger King employee based in Atlanta, and an activist with the Fight for 15 movement for about a year, told Atlanta Progressive News
“We need more people to keep fighting with us because even seven dollars and 25 cents per hour is not enough!” Adams said.
“I have been talking with my co-workers, they are all coming on board, and I believe we are going to achieve our goals here in Georgia,” Adams said.
Currently, the State of Georgia has a statewide minimum wage of five dollars and fifteen cents per hour, which is still less than the federal minimum wage. The federal wage trumps in most cases, with some exceptions.
State Sens. Donzella James (D-Atlanta) and Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) are full of hope, following the recent developments in California and New York.
Earlier this year, the two legislators held a joint hearing on their proposals to raise the state minimum wage in Georgia.
“With the increases in the minimum wage happening in other states and cities, eventually Georgia will have no choice but to take action,” Sen. James told Atlanta Progressive News.
“I am thrilled for the workers and their families, and I am thrilled for all the taxpayers in those states,” Sen. Fort said.
“I think this decision is a true testament to what mass action can accomplish. Unity and fearlessness is a positive thing. This is not just a moral victory, this is a victory for a national movement,” Fort said.
Nationally, grassroots movements have played a major role in this successful push for raising the minimum wage.
In Seattle, in 2014, socialist Councilwoman Kshama Sawant led a successful movement to enact a citywide wage increase to fifteen, with some exceptions for smaller businesses.
Meanwhile, the State of Oregon earlier this year, in 2016, enacted a three-tiered statewide increase, with fifteen dollars in the Portland Metro area, and two lower tiers for the more rural areas in the state.
In New York, the Fight for 15 movement has been leading the effort since 2012, when some two hundred fast food workers went on a momentous strike.
In 2015, Gov. Andrew Cuomo empaneled a Wage Board that later recommended an increase to fifteen dollars an hour. Georgia workers and activists held a “People’s Wage Board,” loosely modeled after the New York board, in 2015 as well.
Last year, over one thousand Atlanta workers rallied in favor of fifteen dollars, as part of a national day of action.
http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2015/04/18/one-thousand-atlantans-rally-for-15-minimum-wage/
“Georgia is second from the bottom in regards to statewide minimum wages, that is shamefully low,” Sen. James said.
“Single parent households and working households are being forced to work up to three jobs and are still struggling,” James said.
Sen. James’s more moderate proposal called for the state minimum wage to be raised to $10.10 per hour, while Sen. Fort’s proposal called for it to be raised to fifteen.
The developments in California and New York are promising, but raising the statewide minimum wage raise in Georgia continues to be a challenge.
“The cost of living may be higher in California and New York, but we are still fighting for fifteen dollars per hour,” Ted Terry, Mayor of the City of Clarkston, Georgia, and State Campaign Director for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, told APN.
“When you are making seven dollars and twenty five cents per hour, you will not be able to afford, at the very least, one thing that you need to live,” Mayor Terry said, referring to necessities like child-care, gasoline, rent, and healthcare.
“We need to be innovating at the local level. The efforts at the State level since 2002 have been noble, but we have not seen the results that we want,” Terry said.
The cost of living throughout Georgia varies, and the Oregon approach might be more appropriate at the statewide level. Another solution would be for the Legislature to allow local autonomy by cities and counties on the issue of minimum wage.
“Instead of continuing to spin the same wheels, we are proposing giving localities the power to set minimum wage rates, let the localities be the laboratories of democracy that we know they can be and are,” Terry said.
The City of Atlanta passed a “living wage” ordinance in 2002, but the City Council and then-Mayor Shirley Franklin were overruled during the 2003-2004 State Legislative Session, when the State passed a law allowing state preemption of any effort to increase the minimum wage at the municipal level.
Georgia’s labor movement lobbied for an end to such preemption, as part of their priorities at the Capitol earlier this year.
With the Legislature having recently passed a City of Atlanta half penny transit referendum, based on the understanding of Atlanta’s unique needs and the desires of Atlanta voters, perhaps Georgia will apply the same rationale in allowing Atlanta and other Metro cities to adopt minimum wages that are necessary and appropriate for each jurisdiction.
The last time the federal minimum wage was increased was in 2007, from $5.15 to $7.25, while President George W. Bush was President. Coverage by APN played a critical role nationally at the time, as several U.S. Senators signed on as co-sponsors after being contacted by APN regarding their lack of co-sponsorship.
http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2007/06/15/federal-minimum-wage-increase-tied-to-iraq-funding/
Democrats in the U.S. Senate attempted to vote on a federal increase to $10.10 in 2014, but the attempt was blocked by Republicans.
http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2013/05/29/ips-despite-push-by-obama-minimum-wage-hike-stagnating/
(END/2016)
5 states including Maryland and Hawaii have $10.10 laws. I believe NY law of $15 per hour is for major fast food employers not things such as shoe repair. laundry. West Virginia raided its minimum wage to $8.85 in a state that has reversed the labor laws in the poorest state in the country. Some of these states are very affordable when CA as well as NY are at te summit of costs. WE have spent 12 years for this and our families in Alabama are denied by law the right to raise wages past $7.25 except at the University of Alabma at Birmingham UAB a major health company. Research and Report help our families to the west and near I-85, I -65, I-20 Wrtten at Atl Univ