By Melanie Trottman
President Barack Obama signed an executive order nine months ago to raise the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors to $10.10 an hour. Now, the groups that pushed for the increase say that’s not enough.
A coalition of more than a dozen groups on Monday called on Mr. Obama to sign another executive order to raise the minimum wage for these workers to $15 an hour, saying he can lift millions out of poverty with the stroke of a pen and set an example for public officials in states and cities where minimum-wage workers are impoverished.
Good Jobs Nation, a coalition leader that receives some union funding and advocates for low-wage workers, also wants Mr. Obama’s executive order to give a preference in awarding to employers that offer benefits such as paid leave and health care.
In addition, the groups want the employees to be able to collectively bargain over wages and working conditions. In a report issued Monday spelling out its demands, the coalition called the federal government “America’s biggest creator of poverty jobs” and said Mr. Obama’s agenda is “unfinished.”
“He can and should take another bold step,” said Bob Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, a coalition member. “The government must lead the way to lift wages and benefits … if we are to build a broad middle class once more,” he said in a conference call.
The White House didn’t comment directly on the $15-an-hour request. In a statement, it said that Mr. Obama “firmly believes that the minimum wage should be increased for America’s workers and that the federal government can be a leader in that effort. That is why the President acted on his own to ensure that 200,000 federal contract workers will see a wage increase. And it is why he has called on states, cities, businesses to act on their own as well – with actions taken since the beginning of 2013 set to provide 7 million workers with a wage increase.”
Coalition leaders say there are far too many undercompensated federal contract workers, including those cleaning buildings and serving food in some of Washington’s most well-known facilities, such as the Pentagon and Union Station.
Coalition leaders are emboldened by the recent midterm elections that they say made clear many Americans support higher wages. President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress failed earlier this year to win approval for a bill that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25, but voters in several states who helped give Republicans control of the Senate last week approved ballot measures to boost their state minimum wage.