Progressives like Bernie Sanders pride themselves on being the champions for the working class. They rally behind extreme, socialist policies, such as Medicare-for-All and a Green New Deal. Democrats have also pushed for increasing the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour. If you let progressives tell it, anyone who doesn’t support hiking the minimum wage hates the poor and lacks compassion; yet when you look a little closer at who Democrats claim to be versus their actions, this is when the cracks begin to show in the facade.
A prime example of this is 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Everytime Sanders gets the chance, he goes after President Trump and talks about how terrible wealthy people are (despite owning multiple homes). Sanders also laments over poverty and the income disparities in America. Like other Democrats, Sanders is supportive of increasing the minimum wage.
As a matter of fact, this is something which he has vowed to do if elected as president; interestingly enough, however, it turns out that Sanders is barely paying his own workers, let alone paying them $15.00 per hour, as documented by Fox News.
How is Sanders Stiffing His Workers?
Sanders’ pay for his campaign staffers is so abysmal that many of them have quit working for him. The ones who remain are admittedly struggling and appealing to Sanders to truly act on his promise of $15.00 per hour. Workers recently joined forced and penned a letter of appeal to Faiz Shakir, the manager of Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
Statements from the campaign staffers read as follows:
“[We] cannot be expected to build the largest grassroots organizing program in American history while making poverty wages. Given our campaign’s commitment to fighting for a living wage of at least $15.00 an hour, we believe it is only fair that the campaign would carry through this commitment to its own field team.”
Additional claims in the letter assert that campaign staffers are struggling financially and barely making ends meet. Despite this, Sanders’ campaign manager has pushed back against claims that workers are barely getting paid.
An excerpt of Shakir’s public response to the letter reads as follows:
“We know our campaign offers wages and benefits competitive with other campaigns, as is shown by the latest fundraising reports.”
The Flaws of Raising the Minimum Wage
If Bernie Sanders truly believed in his statements about raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour, he would start by paying his workers accordingly.
The fact of the matter is that raising the minimum wage is pointless, counterproductive and ineffective. Time and time again, it has been proven that the free market always adapts to minimum wage increases. Americans have seen this when business owners reduce hours after minimum wage hikes. Another example of free market adaptation to minimum wage increases comes in the form of higher prices. When prices increase, that defeats the purpose of raising the minimum wage to begin with.
These are realities which Sanders and progressives continue to ignore.
Do you think Bernie Sanders will put his money where his mouth is and start paying his staffers $15.00 per hour? Let us know in the comments section down below!
