While employment continued to grow in 2014, the wages of most workers in America continued to decline or stagnate.
But there was one very notable exception. The least powerful, most vulnerable workers in our economy saw their wages rise.
Why? How is it that the weakest among us saw increases in wages?
Eighteen states covering 57 percent of American workers had an increase in state or local minimum wages–a result of smart politics and very aggressive legislative action.
Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute did the research and wrote the report.
While the wage increases were small, the trend is astounding given the direction of wages over the last 35 years. And the trend reinforces the critical necessity of both a defensive and offensive political and legislative strategy.
We cannot say too often how critical it is for us to beat the radical right, reclaim the voting rights we’ve lost in 29 states, and re-establish at least the level of democracy we had before Bush the Second started stealing elections.
This report reminds us that local offensive political and legislative strategies are fundamental to improving the lives of regular, working class people.
Image source: Economic Policy Institute