Living Wage Coalition Launches Calling for Comprehensive Minimum Wage Bill With $20 Floor

MADISON – The day after Labor Day and in advance of the upcoming State legislative session, key progressive political organizations and leading labor and community organizations launched the Living Wage Coalition, calling on State policy-makers to take up comprehensive living wage legislation.

Formed by Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Fighting Oligarchy, Milwaukee Area Service & Hospitality Workers Union, Our Wisconsin Revolution, and Wisconsin Working Families Power/Party, the Living Wage Coalition called for State legislators to draft, introduce and pass a minimum wage including the following elements:

• Establish a minimum wage of at least $20 per hour, phased in as quickly as possible on a reasonable timeline
• Index minimum wage to inflation so that the rate does not erode over time
• Reduce the tip penalty for tipped workers, set at a reasonable rate
• Restore local control over minimum wage to municipal governments in order to address local labor market conditions

Excerpts from select speakers at the coalition launch press conference below.

MASH President/Business Manager Peter Rickman:

“Real wages, household income and living standards have been stagnant for two generations, and declining on the growing low end of the labor market. Despite massive productivity gains, we’re getting left behind while the share of economic output returning to capital versus labor has not been this high since the Gilded Age that brought on the Great Depression and virtually all income gains have gone to the wealthiest. Billionaires and the boss class, Wall Street and the 1% rigged the system to take all the power in the labor market, the only market where the commodity is the dignity and livelihoods of human beings.

“In our movement against the income inequality economy, we demanded $15 and a union a dozen years ago – a number figure that would be over $21 per hour today. Had minimum wage kept pace with productivity growth, it would be over $26 – with CEO pay and corporate profit increases, it would be in the mid-30s. $20 per hour is the bare minimum as a floor for our labor market. Working Wisconsin needs a raise and we demand a living wage.”

Wisconsin Working Families Power political director Max Love:

“I’m not sure how anyone is supposed to do math covering rent, groceries, childcare, healthcare and all the bills on $7.25 an hour, $15 an hour or anything less than $20. But right now, the folks in power are siding with the rich and powerful instead of us. It’s not just one party, it’s too many politicians. Too many people are interested in keeping power and making money rather than being a government of by and for the people. We are here to say enough. We are not just saying no to the way things are, we’re saying yes to something better. Making $20 an hour the new standard. I promise you this: this will guide everything we do, both here at the Capitol and in conversations across this state before the 2026 election.”

Fighting Oligarchy organizer Simon Rosenblum-Larson:

“The richest 4 people in the country now hold as much wealth as the bottom 50%. Income inequality numbers are the same as when Rockefeller, Carnegie, Mellon and Morgan monopolized industry in the early 20th century. Meanwhile the median worker see pennies on the dollar of the massive economic growth we’ve seen in the last 50 years. When corporations won’t respect the basic rights of workers, the government has a responsibility to step in.”

Coffee worker Sabrina Prochaska:

“I make $15.81 an hour. Please don’t tell me $15 is enough. Every month my partner and I scrape together the money to pay rent on our one bedroom apartment. I’m stressed out every thirty days because half of my paycheck goes to put a roof over our heads. Grocery bills keep getting more expensive just to put food on our table. Just covering the costs of daily living forces me to use my credit card for necessities. I’m stuck in a cycle of debt, unable to afford paying off the bill each month because I don’t get paid a living wage.

“The constant stress of higher and higher costs of living, being stuck in debt, and unable to pay the bills because I don’t make a living wage takes a toll on my mental and physical health. It’s getting harder and harder to envision a life where I’m not always anxious about money.

“Don’t tell me “go get a better job.” You need me. The world runs on service workers like me. The problem isn’t my job or my work, it’s that jobs don’t pay a living wage. Something like one third of working people in Wisconsin make less than $20 an hour.

Not a one of the politicians here could look me in the eye and say $7.25 or $15 an hour is enough. I just told you, we need a living wage, starting at $20 an hour and going up every year to keep up with the rising cost of living. It’s time for these politicians to do what people like me do every day: do our jobs and take care of your people.”

While State minimum wage remains stuck at $7.25 per hour ($2.33 for tipped workers), MIT economists determine a “living wage” for Wisconsin to start at over $20 per hour for just a single adult. The Economic Policy Institute finds that over 800,000 Wisconsin workers make less than $20 per hour, or nearly one-third of the workforce.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.