Issue Position: Increasing Economic Opportunity and Uplifting Wages and Benefits for all Americans

Issue Position

"While our nation has experienced dramatic productivity growth over the last four decades," Jamie says, "wages and benefits for working families have remained stagnant. The result is the greatest wealth and income inequality America has ever seen." Jamie wants to go to Congress to close the gap: "It erodes the conditions for real democracy when CEOs are making hundreds of times what workers are making and simultaneously have the power to dominate our politics. I will be a leader for the 99% in Congress because the billionaires and CEOs already have all the lobbyists they need."

Jamie wants to increase the minimum wage and will fight for a true living wage for all American workers. "Fifty years ago," he says, "the country's largest employer was General Motors and the average worker there was unionized and making $35 an hour. Today the largest employer is Wal-Mart and the average workers is non-unionized and living on less than $9 an hour. We need to strengthen the right to organize and use laws to defend the position of working people." As chairman of the Montgomery County Senate Delegation in Annapolis, Jamie worked to build unanimous support for an increase of Maryland's minimum wage, and he'll bring that same conviction to Washington to fight for improved wages, benefits and labor standards for all working Americans.

Jamie will be an outspoken leader for a family-focused economic agenda. He will work to make child care affordable for all Americans, ensure women receive equal pay for equal work, and fight for paid sick days so workers don't have to choose between getting healthy and getting paid.

Jamie has called for a "Green Deal" in America. "We need massive public investment in our eroding infrastructure," he says, "to repair our failing roads, bridges, tunnel and schools, and we should do it in a way that jump-starts and catalyzes the renewable energy technologies we need to protect ourselves from climate change." Jamie will support only free trade deals that are fair and balanced, that address foreign currency manipulation and repressive employment practices, that have strong environmental and labor protections which cannot be undercut, and that are accompanied by investment in training and education for workers adversely affected.

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