A coalition of progressive groups is calling on the Obama administration to boost the minimum wage for contractors only a month after the latest raise was implemented.
The group of members of Congress, think tanks and advocacy organizations Monday called on President Obama to give preference to federal contractors that pay workers at least $15 an hour and allow collective bargaining, as well as to create an office within the White House focused on ensuring that the administration is promoting good jobs.
Labor Secretary Tom Perez signed a final rule that set the minimum wage for federal contractors at $10.10 in October, fulfilling a goal Obama set in his State of the Union address. But the progressive groups joining the platform released Monday wrote that the federal government is the “biggest creator of poverty jobs” because of those wages.
“Our goal is not to meet a minimum threshold — our goal is to exceed it. Executive actions giving preference to companies that offer decent wages and collective bargaining will show that we value employers who respect their employees,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat and one of the most liberal members of Congress.
The groups supporting the call for further administrative action on federal contractor employment include political organizations such as the Campaign for America’s Future as well as think tanks such as Demos and the Economic Policy Institute.
They wrote in the document released Monday that some local governments, as well as big businesses, already mandate higher pay for workers than the federal government, noting that Obama himself noted Costco’s practice of promoting higher wages in his State of the Union address. Those facts “demonstrate that the federal government can do more than the minimum to create good jobs — and that doing so benefits workers, taxpayers and investors alike,” the statement reads.
The groups call on Obama to go around the Republican Congress and unilaterally impose higher-wage standards on federal contractors.
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said, “the president knows when the federal government leads the private sector follows. We hope he will take more bold action to reward federal contractors who treat their employees fairly and give workers a seat at the table to negotiate wages and benefits.”
