Vermont Business MagazineRights & Democracy is organizing arally today on May Day at the Vermont State House to urge lawmakers to pass legislation that will raise the basic standard of living for thousands of their neighbors, friends, and family members. Specifically they are urging the Legislature pass and Governor Phil Scott sign a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next few years.
The daylong event, sponsored by the Vermont Raise the Wage Coalition, will include:
- Citizen lobby training.
- A delivery of thousands of petitions to Scott that supports raising the minimum wage and enacting paid family and medical leave insurance.
- One-on-one lunch meetings with legislators.
- A press conference with workers’ voices from around the state and key legislative leaders (1PM, Cedar Creek Room).
- Panel discussions about workers’ rights as human rights and health care as a human right.
The day will end with a 4:30 PM rally on the State House lawn, sponsored by the Vermont Human Rights Council.
The primary focus of the daylong event will be to demonstrate to lawmakers and Gov. Phil Scott that there is strong support for S.40 (raising Vermont’s minimum wage to $15 an hour) and H.196 (enacting paid family and medical leave insurance) and that they should be passed into law this session. It’s time to raise up the standard of living for Vermonters and our communities.
BACKGROUND
Today, more than 25,000 working Vermonters are living on minimum age, and more than 70,000 would see a raise with a $15 an hour minimum wage. Findings from the recent Vermont Minimum Wage Challenge found that food, transportation, and medical costs often make it impossible for even two-earner households to meet their basic needs.
More than eight-out-of-ten Vermonters who will are paid less than $15 an hour are adults, including the parents of almost 20,000 children. Almost all – 86 percent – are high school grads and one-in-four have an associates’ degree or higher. This is not just a matter of economic injustice facing thousands in our state—poverty wages disproportionately harm women and people of color in Vermont. Almost half – 45 percent – of women and almost 60 percent of African Americans in Vermont earn less than $15 an hour.
The bill, passed by the Senate earlier this session, is now being considered by the House Appropriations Committee.
Only 11 percent of workers in the U.S. have access to paid family leave through an employer, and less than 40 percent have access to personal medical leave. Thousands in our own state continue to face severe challenges without paid time off to care for their newborn children, recover from illness or injuries, or take care of their ailing parents because our country doesn't guarantee this paid time off as a right for all.
The bill, passed by the House at the end of last session, is currently in the Senate. The Senate General Affairs Committee recently passed this bill out of committee.
Source:Rights & Democracy