Your turn, Rosenblum!

Oregonians fighting for a $15 minimum wage today announced they’re one step closer to qualifying to have the initiative put on the November 2016 ballot: they’ve delivered their first 2,000 signatures, with representation from all 36 counties, to the state elections office.

Once Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum approves a ballot title, supporters will need to collect more than 88,000 valid signatures by July 2016 to qualify for placement on the ballot.

“In a state where business is better than ever, but nearly half of new jobs pay poverty wages, it’s time for hardworking Oregonians to collect the living wage they have earned,” said Kristi Wright, statewide organizing director for 15 Now Oregon. “No one who works should live in poverty. Oregon is ready for $15, and with the ballot measure, there is no good reason to settle for less.”

READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP

Wright was among the community leaders who spoke today at the State Capitol before a march to the elections office to deliver the signatures. Oregon School Employees Association President Tim Stoelb also spoke in support of the initiative.

“Our state has over 350,000 children who have a parent making poverty wages,” Stoelb says. “If workers were paid a living wage, parents—no longer forced to choose between food and rent—would be able to provide for their children. We want an Oregon where all workers have the dignity and respect of a living wage of no less than $15 an hour.”

Los Angeles is the most recent city where the movement has won a major policy victory and is now the largest city in America with a $15 minimum wage.

House Speaker Tina Kotek’s bill calling for a statewide $13 minimum wage is gaining momentum, but $15 advocates say it’s not enough.

2 replies on “$15 Minimum Wage Advocates Submit First Round Of Signatures”

  1. considering the wide differences in cost of living across our state it seems like a mistake to have one minimum wage statewide.

  2. Clueless Well-Meaning Idiots.

    If simply raising the minimum wage existed in a vacuum upon itself, it maybe – just maybe – might work.
    But there happens also to be this pesky little word called INFLATION that their ideals bump against.

    If your goal is combating wage disparity, you are going about it all wrong, dummies.

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