An economy for all

Sign the petition! Support a progressive economic agenda that raises wages and rebuilds the American middle class.

This month, the Democratic Party Platform Committee is soliciting policies to include in this year’s party platform. This platform will become the agenda for the next president and the next Congress. It is critical that EPI’s progressive economic agenda be included, which will raise the wages of low- and middle-income workers and help rebuild our middle class.

To: Democratic Party Platform Committee

Wage stagnation is a defining issue of our time. It is incumbent on our elected officials in Washington to enact policies that reverse decades of wage stagnation and the struggling of the American middle class. Please include each of the following 17 policies as planks in the 2016 Democratic Party Platform.

EPI’s Agenda to Raise America’s Pay

Strengthen labor standards

  1. Raise the minimum wage
  2. Eliminate the tipped minimum wage
  3. Provide undocumented workers a path to citizenship
  4. Provide earned sick leave and paid family leave
  5. Strengthen laws against discrimination in hiring, pay, and promotion
  6. Support strong enforcement of labor standards
  7. Require fair scheduling practices
  8. Provide accessible, affordable, high-quality child care and early childhood education to support balancing work and family and improved education outcomes
  9. Strengthen worker institutions
  10. Strengthen collective bargaining rights

Getting full employment and a full recovery for all

  1. Make achieving very low rates of unemployment a top priority when making monetary policy and do not raise interest rates until we reach our goals
  2. Enact targeted employment programs and undertake public investments in infrastructure to create jobs
  3. Reduce our trade deficit by stopping destructive currency manipulation
  4. Implement a public service employment program to target jobs to high unemployment communities

Restrain the top 1%

  1. Require higher marginal tax rates to restrain top 1 percent incomes
  2. Implement a financial transaction tax
  3. Restrain CEO pay