When it comes to productivity, U.S. workers continually outpace their counterparts around the world—yet their incomes are not keeping pace. Between 1979 and 2009, U.S. productivity increased by 80 percent , while the hourly wage of the median worker rose by 10.1 percent.
U.S. economic policy has not supported the creation of good jobs over the past several decades. Rather, the focus has been on policies thought to make consumers better off through lower prices: deregulation of industries, privatization of public services, weakening of labor standards, including the minimum wage, erosion of the social safety net and the move toward fewer and weaker unions. These policies have eroded the bargaining power of most workers, widened wage inequality and depleted access to good jobs.
It’s been four years since low-wage workers got a raise. Sign the petition to tell Congress it’s time to raise the minimum wage.
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