To: Charlie Hales, Mayor of Portland
Portland needs a $15 wage!
Seattle just announced an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour. All workers should earn enough to survive and support a family. Portland deserves $15, too. If Seattle can do it, so can Portland!
Why is this important?
For a year and a half, fast food employees and other low-wage workers across the country have been organizing and striking for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation.
Now, the city of Seattle has just announced a landmark agreement to raise the minimum wage to $15. Seattle's wage raise will pump $500 million back into their economy without raising taxes. Large employers paying the lowest wages are subsidized by our taxes when their low-paid employees are forced to use public programs like welfare just to get by.
This is a huge victory for workers, but it's only the beginning of a wave that will sweep across the country. Republicans in the Senate just blocked an increase in the federal minimum wage--but cities like Seattle are showing that progress is made locally. Who's next?
In Portland, raising the minimum wage to $15 will provide a dramatic boost for thousands of working families and the local economy.