How Significant Minimum Wage Hikes Became Reality in the United States

: A Labor Movement in Solidarity with the Community

Abstract

Due to neoliberal globalization and attacks by employers in the 1980s, the US labor movement suffered a sharp decrease in union density and faced the possibility of extinction as a result. After many trials and tribulations, the labor movement discovered a way forward in cooperating and fighting alongside the community in what has been called “Social Movement Unionism.” By focusing on local issues, campaigns to pass living wage ordinances and organizing immigrant and low-wage workers, social movement unionism has strengthened the ties between the labor movement and the community.In 2011, Occupy Wall Street brought attention to growing inequality and poverty in the country, catapulting into the national conversation the question of how to bridge the divide. A year later, in 2012, fast food workers and Walmart employees set off a nationwide strike calling for a $15 an hour wage and the right to unionize. Such efforts, in which the labor movement worked in tandem with the community, became the foundation for the Fight for $15 movement. Working closely with other movements led by low-wage workers, Fight for $15 has expanded its reach to make increases in the minimum wage a reality in many parts of the country.