What will President Obama do to secure his legacy?

In the wake of the midterm elections, the President has little time left to keep his promise to tackle “the most important issue of our time” – the widening gap between the rich and everyone else.

The upside is that Republican control of Congress doesn’t mean that the President is powerless.

The President still holds a powerful pen in his hands – he can take executive action and make sure taxpayer dollars reward companies that create good jobs and grow the middle class.

The President already proved that executive action can transform our economy.

After federal contract workers at the Pentagon and Smithsonian Museums walked off their jobs to protest poverty pay, the President issued an executive order to boost their minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

The President’s stroke of the pen created a ripple effect in the broader economy – after the President’s proclamation, the mayors of Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia issued executive orders to raise wages for their contract workers. And even the CEOs of private companies like IKEA, The Gap, and Disney announced that they too will boost starting pay for their workers. The President didn’t stop at $10.10. After federal contract workers filed wage theft complaints with the US Labor Department, he issued an executive order to stop contractors from stealing wages and breaking labor laws.

These executive orders are a good start – but America’s workers deserve more than the minimum. Even if companies paid workers $10.10 and followed labor laws, workers say it’s not enough to lift their families out of poverty.

That’s why the fight for a Good Jobs Nation is ramping up again – low-wage federal contract workers need stronger executive action to create a path into the middle class for their families.

The President’s legacy – and that of the American middle class – is on the line.