Senate Democrats are pushing for contractors who do business with the Senate to offer their workers a living wage and more robust benefits.
Nine members of the Democratic caucus, led by Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), urged Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to make that demand of contractors — including Restaurant Associates, the Senate’s current food provider.
{mosads}The letter comes after both The Washington Post and CNN reported that Charles Gladden, who works in the Dirksen Senate Cafeteria, is homeless and spends his nights at a downtown Metro station. Contract workers in the Senate also walked off the job last week, demanding $15 an hour wages.
“The U.S. Congress should be working to improve the economic security of middle class families across the country. We should start right here in the U.S. Senate,” Durbin and the other senators wrote.
Democrats have made wage issues a central part of their more populist economic message in recent years and have pushed for legislation to raise the minimum wage. Labor groups have led the push for a roughly $15 an hour minimum wage and have had some success on the local level.
In their Monday letter, the Democratic senators noted that workers who make $10.10 an hour, the minimum allowed under an executive order issued by President Obama, would bring home around $21,000 a year. The senators suggested that wasn’t nearly enough for workers living in the Washington area and called for preference to be given to vendors who would offer higher wages and healthcare benefits.
“Contractors should not be allowed to keep food and restaurant services prices low for Senators, Senate staff and visitors to the Senate while failing to pay their workers a living wage,” the Democrats wrote.
“Nor should American taxpayers subsidize these contractors by allowing them to pay low wages that must be augmented by taxpayer-funded benefits.”
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) joined Durbin on the letter.