Support tipped workers
"$2.13 is the federal rate for tipped workers; a wage that, due to extensive lobbying led by the Other NRA (National Restaurant Association), hasn't budged since 1991, subjecting countless restaurant workers to live in poverty, forced to depend on the generosity of customers to be able to feed their families. Servers — the vast majority are women — use food stamps at double the rate of the rest of the U.S. workforce and are three times as likely to live in poverty. As a result of living off tips, women tipped workers also face sexual harassment with staggering frequency."
~rocunited.org
Support unpaid and paid women workers who are caregivers
"23% of domestic workers are paid below the state minimum wage. 95% of domestic workers are women. 46% of domestic workers are immigrants… Every eight seconds, an American turns 65. In the coming years, more and more members of our communities will need care, just as more and more workers will need quality, dignified jobs. At a time when we desperately need new jobs, new paths to citizenship, and new solutions to persistent crises in care, a broad coalition of people from all walks of life are coming together to push for change."
~domesticworkers.org/caring-across-generations
Join efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour.
Interfaith Worker Justice (iwj.org) writes,
"A living wage for an honest day's work. Seems simple, right? Yet for millions of Americans earning minimum wage, this is nothing but a dream. In 2012, a working mother of two earning $7.25 per hour lived below the poverty line. All religious traditions affirm that work contributes to the dignity and worth of a person. Poverty level wages do not instill dignity. We must raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage and index it to inflation so it stays a living wage."
"There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American whether he [or she] is a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid, or day laborer."
~ The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Challenge wage theft
Employers are illegally stealing workers' earned wages.
"Wage theft — rampant in the U.S. — is especially devastating for low-wage workers. Too often, workers' pay is illegally whittled down by undercounting the hours they worked, paying illegal wage rates or taking unauthorized deductions. Many workers are paid in cash, by check without any explanation or calculation, or with a payroll debit card. A recent study found that 41 percent of low-wage workers had illegal deductions taken. Without paystubs for documentation, workers have difficulty proving wage theft."
~iwj.org