The Fight for $20

With Democrats moving toward finally creating a $15 minimum wage (though it won’t happen in the relief bill), it’s time to think about what this all means. I had the opportunity to talk to Dominic Rushe of The Guardian about it. The main point I stressed is that will be a big victory if it happens, but a $15 minimum wage means a good bit less today than it did when the Fight for $15 started nearly a decade ago and it will mean even less when the graduated wage gains are finally fully implemented. In other words, the struggle is far from ending. It’s time for the Fight for $20.

For labor historian Erik Loomis, a history professor at the University of Rhode Island and author of A History of America in Ten Strikes, the Fight for $15 is one of the most significant victories for workers in 50 years. Although he has caveats.

“It has been a huge success in conjunction with other issues in reshaping narratives around economic equality in America,” he said. From Occupy Wall Street to the Fight for $15 to the #MeToo movement to BLM, Loomis sees a building movement for greater equality. “For the first time in a half-century we are beginning to move in the right direction on this, in a way that, forget about Republicans, did not exist not only under Obama but under Clinton or Carter,” said Loomis. “This is the farthest left economic platform than anything you have seen since the 60s.”

But, as he points out, the $15-an-hour wage Major and others were fighting for in 2012 is worth less than it was back then due to inflation, and will be worth even less in 2025, when a lot of states aim to hit that level. Nor has the campaign managed to establish unions in many fast-food outlets – at least not yet. “The answer is you just keep pressuring,” said Loomis. “In other words, don’t be satisfied with $15. It is time for 20.”

Victories are victories and should be celebrated. But the war for justice of all kinds never, ever ends. And we have to keep fighting for it, no matter how exhausted we might feel.