Local Colorado union leaders, activists and minimum wage employees rallied on the steps of the state’s capitol Monday, calling for a $15 minimum wage.
Colorado residents will vote in November on whether or not to increase the minimum wage from $8.13 an hour to $12 an hour by the year 2020. But the activists Monday asserted that $12 an hour is not enough, and that $15 an hour is the lowest acceptable number to pay minimum wage employees.
The Obama administration previously proposed an increase to the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00 an hour in 2013. Activists and labor leaders have said that $9.00 is not nearly enough, and President Barack Obama continues to call for an increase in the federal minimum wage.
“We are not asking to get rich. We are only asking for enough to be able to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, and the lights on,” Rachel Bainter, a McDonald’s employee told the Denver Post. She said that while $12 is a step in the right direction, it is not enough to, “make it” in today’s economy — even $15 an hour is not enough.
“Even left-leaning economists have said that while they want a hike, but not that high ($15.00),” Aparna Mathur, a labor expert with the American Enterprise Institute told TheDCNF.
She predicted that a $15 federal minimum wage would lead to more cases of wage fraud, and more instances where workers would be paid under the table.
Mathur discussed the shift to automation, and how a push for a $15 minimum wage may expedite plans to automate industries such as fast food. “We know that we don’t really need someone to take an order [fast food], and we will eventually have machines do it. It is risky to fight for something that could put you out of work,” Marthur said.
Instead of a fight for such a dramatic increase in the minimum wage, training programs and workforce education initiatives would be more beneficial to both employees and the employers, according to Mathur. “The only real solution is to enable these people to acquire a different skill set that does not let their job be wiped out by a machine.”
Denver is not the first place to see a fight to dramatically increase the minimum wage. Seattle raised its minimum wage to $15 in 2014, followed by San Francisco and Los Angeles.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law a new $15 minimum wage for the state in 2016, and the University of California has proposed to pay its low-wage employees $15. Washington, D.C., is also in the middle of a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
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