Wednesday, June 10, 2009



A referendum on the minimum wage

$15 an hour

Back in February, Unite responded to the government's decision to raise the minimum wage by a miserly 50 cents an hour by requesting a citizens initiated referendum on the issue. They've now had their question approved and will be launching their campaign tomorrow [PDF].

The question for the referendum is pretty simple:

Should the adult minimum wage be raised in steps over the next three years, starting with an immediate rise to $15 per hour, until it reaches 66% of the average total hourly earnings as defined in the Quarterly Employment Survey?
The task now is to collect 300,000 signatures within 12 months. It will be difficult. But you can start by downloading the signature form and background information here, passing it round to your friends, and posting it back. You can also subscribe to the campaign newsletter here.