This Sunday, MidMO DSA members joined our comrades in Missouri Jobs with Justice at the Ashland Pride Fest to gather signatures for the Fight for $15 ballot initiative campaign that we are conducting alongside JwJ, St. Louis DSA, and KC DSA. This campaign is a necessary act of solidarity with the queer working class.
US poverty wages disproportionately impact already marginalized communities. More than half of min wage workers in the US are women. Half of essential workers making less than $15/hr are BIPOC. Queer working class folks are similarly impacted.
LGBT+ workers earn 90 cents on the dollar compared to the average American worker. 80 cents on the dollar for Black LGBT+ workers, 79 cents for women LGBT+ workers, 70 cents for nonbinary workers and trans men, 60 cents for trans women.
23% of LGBT+ people in the US lived in poverty in 2020. 33% for LGBT+ POC. Particularly horrifying: more than twice the % of trans people live in poverty compared to the general population. The likelihood of living in poverty for a trans person in the US is up to 70%.
Many, if not an outright majority, of people of working age who live in poverty are working. Our wages however, are not capable of sustaining anything but poverty. A full time min. wage worker cannot afford a two bedroom rental in any state in the US.
It is desperately necessary for the working class of this country, white, cis, BIPOC, LGBT+, that we raise the minimum wage, and provide greater protections for working people. Our Fight for $15 initiative will not only raise the minimum wage in this state, But also guarantee paid sick leave for all workers, full and part time. This would be a game-changer for the working poor of our state. But we need your help!
Pledge your support to help us gather signatures, present to others, or share your story: https://mojwj.org/action/pledge-your-support-for-fair-wages-and-earned-sick-time/
We can do this. We can build a state that works for ALL of us. Join us!