Bernie Sanders had a message for working Americans that he gave to union members last week: “Your pay is too damn low.”
Around the country, the call for increasing the minimum wage is resonating with workers who feel the sting of earning the current federal minimum wage. Just this week New York State voted to raise minimum wages to $15 and hour for fast food workers.
“Every working man and woman in the state of New York deserves $15 an hour,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo. “We’re not going to stop until we get it done.”
In July, Bernie Sanders introduced a federal bill seeking to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The effort has largely been opposed by Republicans.
“It is a national disgrace that millions of full-time workers are living in poverty and millions more are forced to work two or three jobs just to pay their bills,” said Bernie Sanders. “In the year 2015, a job must lift workers out of poverty, not keep them in it. The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage and must be raised to a living wage.”
Most Americans agree with Sanders, despite Republicans in both the house and Senate opposing Sanders’ call to raise the federal minimum wage. Hart Research Associates conducted a survey in January and found that 63 percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
