Mar 9, 2018
The first day of March marked a sobering anniversary — Minimum Wage Equal Pay Day, the day a minimum wage worker earning $7.25/hour caught up to how much she earned in a single year the last time the federal minimum wage was raised… in 2009. This anniversary comes as Congress is too busy giving tax cuts to billionaires and deregulating Wall Street to give the lowest-paid workers in this country the raise they’ve so long needed and deserved. Rebecca speaks with Congressman Mark Pocan, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who joined workers at the Capitol earlier this week to call on President Trump and Congress to raise the poverty-level minimum wage.
Next a conversation with Elizabeth Catte, author of the recent book What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, about why we shouldn’t be surprised to see West Virginia teachers — the “daughters and granddaughters of coal miners” — on the front lines of the fight for fair wages.
And finally, Rebecca sits down with Elissa McBride, secretary-treasurer of AFSCME, to unpack what’s at stake in Janus vs. AFSCME, the Supreme Court case that threatens to gut public sector unions.