Poll shows Sacramento supports minimum wage hike
Seventy percent of Sacramento residents support immediately raising the minimum wage to $13.50 an hour, while 58 percent also are in favor of hiking base pay to $15 an hour over a three-year period, according to poll results released on April 15 during a national day of action for low-wage workers across the country.
“Working together we can get this done,” said Sacramento Central Labor Council executive director Fabrizio Sasso, speaking from inside City Hall, where hundreds of marchers occupied the lobby as part of the protest.
Nearly 400 activists, including fast food and security workers, met at Crocker Park at 2nd and Capitol Mall on April 15 before marching past the State Capitol and on to City Hall, where speakers demanded Sacramento follow the lead of cities including Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco that have already increased their minimum wage above California’s mandated $9 per hour.
“City Hall has an opportunity,” said Jefferson McGee of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, a member of a coalition of labor and activists pressing members of Sacramento’s City Council to pass a minimum wage increase in the coming months. “You can be with us or you can fight against us. If you fight against us, we will take it to the street.”
Activists said that if the City Council was not receptive to raising wages, they would seek to put an initiative on the November 2016 ballot.
“This is a chance to come and petition your city government and frankly, they are listening,” said Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, who spoke during the rally. “I stand with you.”
The poll, conducted by David Binder Research, was conducted in March 2015.