Good Jobs, Livable Wages, and Labor Power
Good Jobs, Livable Wages, and Labor Power
Democracy thrives when inequality is low and working people have good jobs with strong labor protections. When wages stagnate while corporate profits soar, when workers are denied the right to organize, and when companies treat wage theft and union-busting as routine costs of doing business, both our economy and our democracy are weakened.
I will fight for a federal jobs guarantee through a Civil Service Corps, offering good union jobs to everyone who wants one. The Civil Service Corps would put people to work on the things this country genuinely needs:
Building and repairing the infrastructure we rely on every day, from roads and bridges to water systems and public transit
Constructing affordable housing at the scale the housing crisis actually demands.
Expanding green energy and the infrastructure to support a fast, smooth transition away from fossil fuels
Staffing the social services that communities depend on, from childcare to eldercare to public health
A federal jobs guarantee would set a floor for the labor market. When every worker knows they have a good union job available to them, private employers have to compete by offering decent wages and conditions.
The federal minimum wage is far too low, and it has been allowed to fall behind the cost of living for so long that full-time work at minimum wage no longer covers the basics of life anywhere in the country. I will support legislation to increase the minimum wage to a livable level and index it to the cost of living, so that it keeps pace automatically rather than requiring a political fight every decade while wages fall further behind.
The disruption of the labor market by AI will likely be faster and more damaging than previous technological shifts because it gives many new ways for companies to cut corners and devalue labor. Our existing safety net is not built for this shift, especially as it has been demolished by the Trump administration. I support a universal basic income that provides every person a stable floor to live on, regardless of employment status. Pilots of UBI programs have been unequivocally successful in increasing peoples’ living conditions. UBI works alongside good jobs and labor protections. It provides another layer of security that ensures no one falls through the cracks when industries change and companies shed jobs.
The right to organize is fundamental, and it has been systematically eroded for decades. I support the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would strengthen workers' ability to form unions, bargain collectively, and take action against employers who violate labor law. The PRO Act would:
Protect workers from retaliation and impose substantive penalties on employers who violate labor law
Ban mandatory captive-audience meetings that employers use to pressure workers against unionizing
End the permanent replacement of striking workers
Override state "right-to-work" laws that weaken unions and depress wages
Crack down on the misclassification of employees as independent contractors, protecting temp workers and gig workers
Giving workers real power at the bargaining table is how we build parity between the working class and the employers whose decisions shape their lives.
Too many workers are injured, made sick, or killed on the job each year. Enforcement of basic safety standards is chronically underfunded. I will fight to strengthen federal workplace safety standards across all industries, provide more resources for enforcement, and increase consequences for violations so that companies cannot treat them as routine costs.
Wage theft costs American workers enormously. Research from the Economic Policy Institute has found that wage theft exceeds the combined value of all reported robberies, burglaries, larceny, and motor vehicle theft in the U.S. each year.
The penalties for employers caught stealing from their workers are often minimal. Union-busting is a well-funded industry, with consulting firms and organizations dedicated to preventing unionization. Employers routinely violate labor law to union bust because the fines are cheaper than negotiating with a union.
I will push for legislation and funding that gives federal and state enforcement agencies the authority and resources to pursue wage theft and union-busting aggressively. Penalties have to be meaningful enough that they cannot simply be absorbed as a cost of doing business.
I have picketed with and donated to striking workers, and many of my close personal friends are labor organizers and union members. As a member of Congress, I will work closely with federal, state, and local unions, including SEIU, NEA/CTA, NALC/NPMHU/NRLCA, AFL-CIO, the Sacramento Central Labor Council, NNU/ANU, AFSCME, AFGE, UFCW, IBEW, CSEA, TWUA, and UNITE HERE, among others. Labor unions know what workers need because workers built them. Any labor policy worth passing should be shaped in genuine partnership with the people it affects.
My Jobs & Labor Checklist
Create a federal jobs guarantee
Establish a livable minimum wage
Provide Universal Basic Income
Pass the PRO Act
Raise workplace safety standards
Stop wage theft and union busting
Stand with labor, not corporations