Wells Steadfastly Supports Raising Minimum Wage for All

November 25, 2013

2013-09-28 Paid Sick Rally.jpg

(Washington, DC) - Today, Councilmember Tommy Wells applauds the second major step in the fight to raise the minimum wage and ensure paid sick days for all District workers.

"I made a promise that I would work to raise the minimum wage for all DC workers," Wells stated. "As the first step in this process, I was proud to introduce a comprehensive bill, "Living Wage for All DC," that garnered support from nine co-introducers and co-sponsors--a veto-proof majority of the Council. Today's vote to support the measure out of committee is the second step. The final steps are to win the vote of the Council's Committee of the Whole and then clear the Mayor's desk."

"Raising the minimum wage helps ensure that DC is a place where everyone can afford to live, work and raise a family. With over 100,000 District residents and approximately 29 percent of the DC's children currently living in poverty, our hard-working families cannot afford to wait any longer. The time to raise the minimum wage is now."

"We now have the momentum to raise our minimum wage to $11.50/hour and to index it to the Urban Consumer Price Index to keep it in line with the rising cost of city living. I also fully support providing paid sick days for all District employees."