By Donna Provencher
American Independent, March 22, 2021
Democratic lawmakers joined a call Friday with workers' rights advocates to discuss new strategies to raise the federal minimum wage after recent roadblocks prevented its inclusion in President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package. ...
Advocates and activists have long been pushing to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, given that worker wages haven't kept pace with the rise of cost of living in the United States for years. ... According to the [MIT] living wage calculator, even $15 an hour is lower than the cost of living in most parts of America.
Or, as Holly Sklar, CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, told the American Independent Foundation, "The federal minimum wage has become a poverty wage instead of an anti-poverty wage."
"There's been a spotlight on the hard work and low pay of grocery store workers, health care aides, delivery drivers and other essential workers during this pandemic," she said. "We can't call workers essential while letting them be paid wages that leave them struggling to pay for essentials. We can't build a shared recovery and strong economy on a minimum wage that's too low to live on." ...