Get behind the fight for $15

Americanworkers banded together to demand higherwages beginningwith the Boston ship carpenters in 1675.

With the forming of the American Federation ofLabor (AFL) in 1886, the labormovement promoted the idea of a general “livingwage.” In the depths of the GreatDepression, both unemployed and unionworkers mobilized to successfully support the passage of the Fair Labor StandardsAct, which established the first national minimumwage at $.025 per hour. Fromthat point on, America’s unions, working with community allies, have applied pressure to local, state, and federal governments to raise the minimumwage as high as possible.

Stagnant incomes are the crisis of our time! Thanks to the productivity of America’sworkers, theU.S. economy is nearly twice as large per capita as itwas in 1980 — but most families have nothing to show for it. Corporate profits as a share of our national income are at an all-time high, whilewages are at a 65-year low.

The current minimumwage in Florida is $8.56 per hour. ThisNovember, every Floridian will have the opportunity to raise theminimumwage to $15 an hour by voting yes on Amendment 2. This raisewould benefit nearly 2.5million hard-working Floridians and keep them out ofpoverty.

Voting for Amendment 2, a constitutional ballot initiative to raise theminimum wage to $15, is good forworkers, good for business and good for the economy.

The South Florida labormovement calls on all Floridians to join us to support and vote for Amendment 2 because it willmake a huge difference right nowfor Florida’s lowest paidworkers and their families.

No one should have towork two or three jobs just to survive, and have toworry day in and day out howthey will feed their families. Let’s not allowFlorida’s low-wage workers to keep on falling further behind.

Jeffrey Mitchell,

President of South FloridaAFL-CIO