LeeAnn Hall, co-director of People’s Action Institute, provided this statement today on the $15 minimum wage proposal:

Organizations that make up People’s Action Institute have been fighting for a $15 minimum wage on the city and state level for years, helping lead the fight in Seattle – the first city to adopt $15 – and supporting other cities that followed.

The sky didn’t fall in Seattle when workers were paid a living wage, and it won’t fall anywhere else.

Our research shows that a $15 an hour minimum wage is a modest demand – the minimum wage in every state falls far short of an actual living wage. In Alabama, the $7.25 minimum wage is 47 percent of the $15.49 needed to make ends meet. In California, the $10 minimum wage is just half of the $19.90 it takes for a single adult to get by.

A full-time job should lead to financial stability, not poverty.

We applaud Sen. Sanders, Sen. Murray and the Senate’s Democrats who are supporting increasing the minimum wage to $15 and abolishing the tipped minimum wage. It can’t happen soon enough.

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