Workers speak out against Jeff Johnson’s opposition to minimum wage increases
Responding to Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson’s opposition to minimum wage increases, workers who are actually impacted by minimum wage rates.
In April, Governor Mark Dayton signed legislation raising the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2016, with annual cost of living increases. The legislation means a pay raise for at least 325,000 of Minnesota’s lowest paid workers.
“I was one of the hundreds of workers sub-contracted by Delta who got our first raise in over five years on August 1st when the minimum wage went up, and despite Delta’s record profits of over $2.7 billion last year, we still only make $8 per hour. Now I hear politicians like Jeff Johnson want to stop the small increases coming in future years, and possibly even roll back the raise we already got?,” asked Darcy Landau, a wheelchair agent at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. "Does Mr. Johnson understand the pain this would cause tens of thousands of Minnesotans and their families?”
“Though he’s trying to run away from it now, Jeff Johnson has a clear record of opposing minimum wage increases for the lowest paid workers in Minnesota,” said Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson, who co-chaired the successful “Raise the Wage” coalition. “Whether it was his time in the legislature or during his campaign, Jeff Johnson has shown time and again that he sides with billionaires and big corporations over working Minnesotans.”
Jeff Johnson’s consistent record of minimum wage opposition includes:
Voting against a modest increase to $6.15 per hour, a bill that even Governor Tim Pawlenty signed. 1
Pledging to sign legislation repealing the recent minimum wage increase. 2
Committing to cancel future minimum wage cost of living increases. 3
“Minnesota’s economy is working again and now even the lowest paid workers are beginning to see their take home pay increase,” add Knutson, “We put all of this success in jeopardy if we send Jeff Johnson and a Republican House majority to the Capitol.”
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1 Minnesota House Journal, 5/2/2005, pg. 3417
2 Bemidji Pioneer, 6/2/2014
3 MinnPost, 4/11/2014
This is an independent expenditure prepared and paid for by the Minnesota AFL-CIO Political Fund, 175 Aurora Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55103, and is not approved by any candidate.