The House of Representatives voted on July 18 to raise the federal minimum wage. By a vote of 231-199, members passed the Raise the Wage Act, H.R. 582, legislation that would increase the federal minimum wage-now just $7.25 an hour-for the first time in 10 years. Under the act, the minimum wage would increase to $15 by 2025. A higher federal minimum wage would benefit numerous categories of workers, including many education support professionals, who provide important services to students, yet struggle to get by on what they earn. The legislation would help one-sixth of educators, according to studies, as well as one-fifth of construction workers, a quarter of health care workers, and nearly a third of manufacturing workers. Studies also show the legislation would reduce poverty and income inequality by raising the total annual income of the lowest-paid workers, and help close racial earnings gaps. Send an email urging your senators to cosponsor S. 150, the companion legislation in the Senate.

PROTECT OUR PENSIONS! PASS HR 397

HR 397 House Vote

The Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act (HR 397) is headed to the full House of Representatives for debate and vote on the floor this week!  This bill is vital to protecting the pensions of hundreds of thousands of active Teamsters members and retirees across the country.  Thanks to both Democratic and Republican allies in the House, the bill is expected to pass out of the house.  But every last vote counts, from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.

The time is NOW to urge your member to vote for H.R. 397!

TAKE ACTION – Tell your Member of Congress that you support the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act (HR 397) and that you will be watching how they vote on the House floor this week.

In order to address your message to the appropriate recipient, we need to identify where you are.

Street Number and Name:* 

5 Digit Zip Code:* 

Submit

URGE YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS TO PROTECT WORKERS FROM PREVENTABLE INJURY AND DEATH

Asuncion Valdivia was 53 years old, working a 10-hour shift picking grapes in the sun on a 100-degree July day.

He collapsed from heatstroke and died as his son valiantly tried to get him to the hospital.

U.S. workers don’t have basic protections against deadly heat, and the climate crisis is intensifying this hazard. 

The Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act, just introduced in Congress, is our chance to change this.

Take action now.

Email your U.S. representative and demand that they protect workers from deadly heat.

This bill will protect workers by ensuring they have access to water, rest and shade, or a cool environment during dangerously hot days.

Whether it’s a worker laboring under the scorching sun or in a sweltering warehouse without proper ventilation, no worker should be denied basic protections against dangerous heat.

These are common sense safety measures proven to save lives.

Urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor this bill to protect workers from preventable injury and death.

Heat is the leading weather-related killer in the U.S., and the problem is only growing worse due to the climate crisis.

An estimated 290 million Americans will see temperatures hit 90 degrees or more during the next week — and this legislation could help ensure workers won’t die in the future in extreme conditions like these.

Thanks for raising your voice,               

Shanna Devine
Public Citizen’s Worker Health & Safety Advocate

12 Minimum wages going up in seven Bay Area cities Alameda, Milpitas and Fremont will see the biggest bumps

By ANNIE SCIACCA | asciacca@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group

PUBLISHED: June 30, 2019 at 6:14 am | UPDATED: July 1, 2019 at 8:03 am

Many workers in seven Bay Area cities will see bigger paychecks next month as a round of new ordinances raising minimum wages takes effect Monday.

Those in Alameda, Milpitas and Fremont will see the biggest bumps.

In Alameda and Fremont, the minimum wage will rise from $12 to $13.50 an hour, although businesses in Fremont with 25 or fewer employees can continue paying $11 per hour next year. Minimum wages in Milpitas will climb from $13.50 to $15 an hour.

In San Leandro the minimum wage will jump a buck, from $13 to $14 per hour.

They’re among the latest Bay Area cities raising minimum wages at a faster pace than the state, which is marching toward its goal of $15 an hour by 2023. Cities including San Francisco and Berkeley have already reached $15 per hour and those rates will increase slightly to $15.59 on Monday.

Emeryville has one of the highest local minimum wages — $15.69 per hour for businesses with 56 or more employees and $15 for those with fewer employees. On Monday, the minimum hourly wage for most businesses there will rise to the single rate of $16.30. There will be some exceptions, however, a result of the Emeryville City Council responding to the concerns of small business owners.

The council last month approved an amendment to the minimum wage ordinance that defines small independent restaurants as those with fewer than 20 locations globally, including franchisees. The amendment sets the hourly minimum wage for those restaurants at $15 for fiscal year 2019-2020 and phases in gradual increases over the next eight years until the rate matches those of all other businesses.

East Bay Working Families, a coalition of labor advocates and workers, submitted a petition to overturn the amendment. Chadrick Smalley, the city’s economic and housing manager, said the signatures are being reviewed by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, and if they’re confirmed, the council will either repeal the amendment or put the question to voters in an election.

“The rising cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area has made it one of the most expensive regions to live in the United States. Suddenly revoking a long-awaited minimum wage increase further devalues Emeryville’s most vulnerable community members,” East Bay Working Families stated in opposing Emeryville’s minimum wage amendment. “This abrupt decision to revoke a living wage from the city’s most vulnerable workers based solely on the feedback from business owners will leave these employees with an 8 percent pay cut.”

Opponents of minimum wage laws argue that forcing businesses to pay employees more than they can afford forces them to offer either fewer hours or fewer jobs or be forced to close.

Proponents counter that higher wages are key to surviving in the high-priced Bay Area.

Research on the impacts of minimum wages haven’t produced clear results. Business owners in Emeryville surveyed by Mills College researchers provided mixed feedback. While 33 percent said business suffered because of minimum wage increases, 14 percent said it actually improved. About 22 percent said workers were more productive, while 19 percent said productivity decreased. Even their perceptions of employee morale were split, according to survey results.

Approximately 32 percent of employees in California — 4.9 million — earned less than $14.35 per hour in 2017, a study released last year by the UC Berkeley Labor Center shows.