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WHEREAS, President Barack Obama has called addressing income inequality "the defining issue of our time"; and,
WHEREAS, the noted economist Thomas Piketty wrote in his landmark book "Capital in the 21st Century," the need to act on income inequality is profound: "real wages for most US workers have increased little if at all since the early 1970s, but wages for the top one percent of earners have risen 165 percent, and wages for the top 0.1 percent have risen 362 percent"; and,
WHEREAS, millions of low-wage workers struggle to meet their families' most basic needs, urban living is increasingly unaffordable for so many citizens, and the hollowing-out of the middle class strikes at the core of who we are as a community - dedicated to democratic principles and economic advancement and opportunity; and,
WHEREAS, women and people of color are over-represented in low-wage jobs, and a higher minimum wage is a powerful tool to reduce race and gender income disparities; and,
WHEREAS, many workers cannot fully participate in their community's civic life or pursue the myriad educational, cultural, and recreational opportunities that constitute a flourishing life because they struggle to meet their households' most basic needs; and,
WHEREAS, minimum-wage laws promote the general welfare, health, and prosperity of citizens by ensuring that workers can better support and care for their families and fully participate in civic, cultural, and economic life; and,
WHEREAS, corporations have a responsibility to treat their employees with respect and workers have a moral right to live in dignity, but approximately 52 percent of the families of front-line fast-food workers are enrolled in public assistance programs, which costs taxpayers approximately $7 billion a year; and,
WHEREAS, the fast-food industry had revenues of approximately $232 billion in 2014 and the top 7 fast-food companies earned annual profits in 2012 of approximately $7 billion and d...
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