Something New I Didn't Know

Something New I Didn't Know

There's a new contender in the race to the bottom: A new report reveals that

 the federal government is America’s largest creator of poverty-wage jobs.

Now workers are on strike demanding that federal contractors pay living wages.

Tell President Obama that we want our tax dollars to create good, middle-class jobs.

Sign the petition

Every year the federal government pays private contractors $1 trillion to do everything

from sew military uniforms to clean the bathrooms at federal buildings to sell food

and souvenirs at national landmarks. Many of these

 contractors are paying their workers poverty wages -- sometimes even less than minimum

wage!

 -- while their CEOs make millions. The federal government is now

joining companies like McDonald’s and Walmart in creating millions of poverty-level

jobs.

Last month, hundreds of contracted

 workers in federal buildings in Washington staged a series of bold strikes demanding

t

hat President Obama sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay

living wages. By signing an executive order, he can

lift hundreds of thousands of workers out of poverty with the stroke of a pen.

As taxpayers, this is our fight too

 -- we need to raise our voices and

 tell the President that we want our tax dollars creating good jobs

 and rebuilding the middle class.

Click here to sign our petition to President Obama: Ensure that federal contractors pay a living wage.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. In the days of the New Deal and the Great Society,

when the federal government wanted to act as a model employer, it passed laws requiring

government contractors to pay prevailing wages. But those laws aren’t working anymore,

and millions of workers getting paid with our tax dollars aren’t making enough to

afford basic necessities like rent or childcare. Many have money illegally withheld

from their paychecks so that they take home less than the legal minimum wage. The

yawning gulf between wealthy contractors and the workers they exploit

has helped make Washington, DC one of the most unequal cities in America.

In his State of the Union address,

President Obama said it’s time “to reignite the true engine of America’s economic

growth—a rising, thriving middle class.”

If the president wants to put his money where his mouth is, he can start right away.

Tell the president to start rebuilding the middle class: Guarantee that taxpayer money is going to support good jobs

Thanks for your support,

Rob and the team at SumOfUs.org

****************

More information:

"

Underwriting Bad Jobs: How our tax dollars are funding low-wage work and fueling inequality

," Demos, May 2012.

 SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations

accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

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