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Many activists and even businesses are pushing for minimum wage increases
The Freedom Socialist Party has right-wing bloggers seeing red over a job listing that paid less than the group advocates for a minimum wage.
Earlier this month, the nonprofit posted listings on Craigslist and Indeed to advertise an opening for a part-time web designer. It offered to pay $13 an hour or more, depending on the designer’s experience. That’s well below the $20 minimum wage the party pushes for in its platform, and lower than the $15 wage it helped pass this year in Seattle. Right-leaning sites promptly seized on what they saw as hypocrisy.
On a related note, the CEO of Wal-Mart famously petitioned Congress to raise the minimum wage, arguing that his own employees were becoming too poor to shop at their own store.
Solution: Start by paying your own employees more
We don't have to wait for legislation to pay what we think our employees deserve. Advocacy organizations and corporations that believe their workers are not making a living wage can simply opt to raise their pay.
Activists can also focus their efforts on employers, not just lawmakers. If Wal-Mart and other employers are waiting for laws to raise the wage, public pressure could be enough to spur them to make changes on their own.
