Issue Position: An Economy that Works for Everyone

Issue Position

-Raise the minimum wage and create federal paid sick and family and medical leave programs
-Close the pay gap and end workplace sexual harassment
-Reinvigorate workers' rights to fight for higher wages and safe workplaces

We're told that America's economy is the best it's ever been, but if that's true, why are young people working two or three low wage jobs? Why is the uncertain gig economy continuing to expand? Why is it harder for working families to make the time to take care of very young children or the very old unless they have a high-wage job? And why do women continue to earn wages lower than men doing the same work?

The reality is that while Congress has given billion-dollar tax breaks to giant corporations, workers have largely been forgotten and ignored. Wages have stagnated and income inequality is at a fifty-year high. That doesn't sound like the "best economy" to me.

But here's another story: innovative and groundbreaking ideas and reforms passed by our state's legislature have helped Washington become ranked the best state for workers and the best state for business. We know that good laws not only grow an economy but make life better for the working people and their families that power it.

Now, is the time to bring those same successful ideas to the nation.

Washington led on paid family and medical leave, and as a result we have one of the top rated programs in the country. This should be a national program, the way it is in almost every developed nation in the world. Everyone ought to be able to take time off work and care for family after the birth of a child or a serious illness.

The last time the federal minimum wage was raised was more than a decade ago -- that's way too long to go without giving America's working people a much-deserved raise. In Washington, we've shown that having one of the highest minimum wages in the country doesn't crash the economy, but actually grows it. I support increasing the minimum wage federally, phased in over several years and indexing it to match inflation.

Washington's State Legislature is nearly 40% female, but in Congress only 20% of members are women. Perhaps that's why Washington state has prioritized passing landmark legislation aimed at eliminating the pay gap, ensuring pay equity, and ending workplace sexual harassment. This is something we must adopt nationwide, along with new laws to make childcare more available and affordable to all parents.

As competition dwindles, big corporations grow increasingly powerful, and the Supreme Court and state governments gut labor protections, workers are losing their ability to have a voice at the table.

Perhaps most importantly, I want to work to strengthen the union movement and make it easier for employees to organize just as I did in a bill I passed giving half time state employees (often women) the right to organize. Washington has one of the highest unionized workforces in the country, and, as a result, workers here have seen higher wages and better benefits.

Labor law reform should have been enacted years ago by Congress to improve collective bargaining laws, increase apprenticeship opportunities, and give working people a fair shot at a decent living. I will work to make that happen in the next Congress.

Source