/r/FightFor15
/r/FightFor15 is a grassroots community designed to raise support and awareness for a nationwide federal minimum wage. The minimum wage of $7.25 hasn't increased in over 15 years. This subs original goal was $15 but even that isn't a living wage in most parts of the US. $15, $20, $30, $50 . This movement works to give workers a living wage and the right to unionize.
/r/FightFor15 is a grassroots community designed to raise support and awareness for a nationwide federal minimum wage. The minimum wage of $7.25 hasn't increased in over 15 years. This subs original goal was $15 but even that isn't a living wage in most parts of the US. $15, $20, $30, $50 . This movement works to give workers a living wage and the right to unionize.
Related Subreddits:
r/SquadDemocrats
r/Labor
r/GreenNewDeal
r/MedicareForAll
r/CollegeForAll
r/IncomeInequality
r/EconomicDemocracy
r/BasicIncome
Facts
Fast food is a $200 billion a year industry and retail is a $4.7 trillion industry, yet many service workers across the country earn minimum wage or just above it and are forced to rely on public assistance programs to provide for their families and get healthcare for their children. Each year, our labor brings billions of dollars into stores and restaurants nationwide, but almost all of these profits go to make executives and investors even richer, while we struggle to provide our families with basic necessities like food, rent, healthcare and transportation. Just in fast food, 52 percent of families are enrolled in one or more public assistance programs—like food stamps and medicaid—compared with 25 percent of the workforce as a whole. Such low wages cost taxpayers about $7 billion a year.
We believe that people who work hard for a living should make enough to support themselves, their families and their neighborhoods—and that workers should be treated with dignity and respect. We believe this will not only improve our lives, but create jobs and make the nation’s economy stronger.
The Facts
The Workers
The median wage for fast food workers is 8.94 an hour
The average fast food worker works only 24 hours a week due to restrictions
The average fast food worker makes 11,318 per year
The average fast food worker is 28 years old
78% are the main earners of the household
52% rely on public assistance
26% have children
Working full time, an adult with one child needs 20.86 an hour to just afford the basics.
The Corporations
The fast food industry costs taxpayers 7 billion dollars a year due to low wages.
McDonald's alone costs the tax payer 1.6 billion
Wendy's and Burger King both cost the taxpayer more than they make in profit
McDonald's makes 5.6 Billion in profit per year, and pays it's CEO 9.5 million
Burger King profits 234 million and pays it's CEO 4.7 million
Wendy's profits 46 million and pays it's CEO 7.6 million
It would take a fast food worker 777 Years to make the pay a CEO makes in one year
Rights:
All Workers have the right to:
Join a union
Attend a union meeting on the worker's own time
Speak with a union organizer
Declare himself as union supporters
Assist in forming a union
Even if the workers do not yet have a union, one is allowed to engage in a “concerted effort” with two or more workers to improve working conditions
Employers are forbidden by law to engage in certain conduct. It is ILLEGAL for an employer to…
Threaten the worker with discharge or punishment if you engage in union activity
Threaten to shut down business if a union is formed
Prevent the worker from recruiting union members during non-working hours
Question the worker about union matters, union meetings, or union supporters
Ask whether or not the worker belongs to a union or has signed up to join a union
Transfer or assign the worker to a less desirable work assignment because of his or her union activity
Threaten to terminate the worker's benefits due to unionization
Threaten to lay the worker off in retaliation for joining a union
/r/FightFor15
498 Subscribers
Bernie Sanders: Raise the minimum wage to at least $17 (Videos of rallies)
19:07 UTC
"Nobody in America can survive on $7.25 an hour, $9 an hour or $12 an hour. It’s time to raise the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour." - Bernie Sanders
13:36 UTC
Video: RAISE THE WAGE
21:25 UTC
Bernie Sanders: We must raise the minimum wage to a living wage | In the richest country on earth, if you work 40 hours a week you shouldn’t have to live in poverty
19:06 UTC
Sen. Bernie Sanders: A $14/hr minimum wage ‘is not going to do it’ (Interview) | Sanders: Raise the minimum wage to at least $17/hr
19:04 UTC
New York Times: How Restaurant Workers Help Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low / Washington Post: Restaurant group uses workers’ cash to lobby against them, advocates say
20:35 UTC
Starbucks corporate greed tells you exactly what you need to know about how much they value their employees. We’ve got to organize against corporate greed and UNIONIZE
16:14 UTC
State your opinion
Assessments for minimum wage jobs are discriminatory and should be illegal.
22:02 UTC
Join us for a conversation with Amazon Labor Union organizers on how they and their coworkers achieved the most important union victory in decades — and what workers across the country can learn on how to organize their workplaces today!
11:50 UTC
Watch "Let's talk about Amazon in Alabama...." on YouTube
20:40 UTC
Kshama Sawant and Socialist Alternative Speak to Buffalo Starbucks Workers
13:21 UTC
I think it’s high time we stop asking for peanuts and ask for a real living wage
In 1970 minimum wage was $1.60 and gold was $35 an ounce. That means it took 22 hours to earn an ounce of gold. Many pro capitalist conservative moderate and liberal voices will argue the value of gold is irrelevant but this is not true. The value of gold shows the buying power of a currency.
You see what happened was voices like MLK jr were being heard in the 60’s and unions were strengthening. Progress was made and minimum wage was increased from $.75 to $1.60 within 16 years. MLK jr was a virulent anti capitalist and this was the main reason he was murdered. For saying that “capitalism is a system of exploitation built on the suffering of enslaved people and it continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor both black and white here and abroad”
He was assassinated and within the decade after his death one of the most fascist and toxic presidential administrations in our history abolished the gold standard which was great for Wall Street industrialists / capitalists because this single action ushered in the new age of inflation and austerity. These military and prison industry profiteers specifically devalued the US dollar to eradicate the progress of the pro labor movement. Now we beg for $15 an hour which would take 120 hours to earn the buying power of minimum wage 5 decades ago. It’s time we demand for a real living wage, it’s time we r/FightForFortyFive which is only 1/2 the buying power of 50 years ago but it’s a hell of a lot better than what we have now. But this isn’t enough we also need a maximum wage and a wealth tax. No more slavery of wages, no more exploitation at all costs.
06:21 UTC
Interesting in organizing
Hey, is there a place to coordinate for this? Like a central location to get more info about current progress for $15 wage or is there no such place? Would people be interested if one was created?
00:28 UTC
$15 an hour doesn’t even cover the basic cost of an apartment in most states.
$15 maybe would have been adequate in the year 2000 but today $15 an hour is just slightly less shitty than what these places are offering now. It’s not a living wage anymore it’s $600 a week before taxes.
06:46 UTC