The Tompkins County Workers' Center is spearheading a campaign locally that plugs into the national Fight for $15 movement with our own creative version of a Countywide Minimum Wage that is a Living Wage (presently $14.34/hour) for every single worker in the County. As we recently learned that Tompkins County is the EIGHTH most expensive place to live in the United States for a family of four in research done by the Economic Policy Institute, we no longer accept wages that just CANNOT help people make ends meet. With a solid strategic plan to make the minimum wage a Living Wage, working its way through the County Legislature, and then State government, we need YOUR HELP to make this a reality!
As Milton Webb, Organizing Committee Member for the Minimum Wage as Living Wage campaign (and a major instigator of the move to pressure Casella Waste Systems to pay its recycling workers a Living Wage) is fond of saying: "A Living Wage will make things better for families, for the economy, for everybody. The money will be spent right here in Ithaca. To all of the people who don’t earn a Living Wage because they’re employer won’t pay a Living Wage, hang in there, it’s coming.”
