Sanders’ campaign responds for failing to live up to $15-an-hour pledge
Lead Summary
By
The Highland County Press-
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign is in some turmoil this week, after numerous reports surfaced that his staffers were being paid less than the $15-an-hour minimum wage which he’s championed during his time in office.
According to reports, his staff unionized back in May 2019 and agreed to collective bargaining.
After reports that some staffers are working up to 60 hours per week without overtime, the Sanders’ campaign plans to reduce workers’ hours in order to abide by the $15-an-hour pay rate.
Sanders has been an outspoken proponent of a $15 an hour minimum wage and his campaign vowed to implement that policy with staffers. But now, his campaign is having issues holding up to that end of the bargain.
“There’s nothing ‘extreme’ about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour,” Sanders said via Twitter.
According to https://feelthebern.org/, when the Raise the Wage Act was introduced in the Senate in 2019, Sanders said: “Just a few short years ago, we were told that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour was ‘radical.’ But a grassroots movement of millions of workers throughout this country refused to take ‘no’ for an answer. It is not a radical idea to say a job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it. The current $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage is a starvation wage. It must be increased to a living wage of $15 an hour.”
Sanders is serving his third term in the U.S. Senate after winning re-election in 2018. He is one of several Democrats running for president.
According to reports, his staff unionized back in May 2019 and agreed to collective bargaining.
After reports that some staffers are working up to 60 hours per week without overtime, the Sanders’ campaign plans to reduce workers’ hours in order to abide by the $15-an-hour pay rate.
Sanders has been an outspoken proponent of a $15 an hour minimum wage and his campaign vowed to implement that policy with staffers. But now, his campaign is having issues holding up to that end of the bargain.
“There’s nothing ‘extreme’ about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour,” Sanders said via Twitter.
According to https://feelthebern.org/, when the Raise the Wage Act was introduced in the Senate in 2019, Sanders said: “Just a few short years ago, we were told that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour was ‘radical.’ But a grassroots movement of millions of workers throughout this country refused to take ‘no’ for an answer. It is not a radical idea to say a job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it. The current $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage is a starvation wage. It must be increased to a living wage of $15 an hour.”
Sanders is serving his third term in the U.S. Senate after winning re-election in 2018. He is one of several Democrats running for president.