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Learn MoreRaise Up Massachusetts turns in over 271,000 signatures
Raise Up Massachusetts turns in over 271,000 signatures
Raise Up Massachusetts delivered more than 271,000 signatures on initiative petitions seeking a higher minimum wage and paid family and medical leave to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office today.
The event was festive. A band played as representatives from the many organizations that volunteered to collect signatures assembled outside before the boxes of petitions were turned in to the secretary’s Beacon Hill office.
The MTA is a member of the Raise Up coalition, and public educators played an active role in gathering the signatures.
The petition seeking to raise the minimum wage incrementally to $15 per hour by 2022 received 137,551 signatures. The petition to establish paid family and medical leave for all workers received 133,970 signatures.
The paid leave initiative would require that employers pay into a trust that would provide up to 90 percent of a worker’s wages — up to $1,000 per week — for the duration of a job-protected leave taken to care for a family member or for one’s own illness.
"These initiatives support Massachusetts families and will improve the lives of countless students in our public schools, which is why MTA educators are joining the fight to raise the minimum wage and to make paid family and medical leave available to more workers,” said MTA President Barbara Madeloni.
The Legislature has until the end of June to enact laws that satisfy the criteria outlined in the initiatives. If lawmakers do not pass legislation, Raise Up Massachusetts will gather another round of signatures in the summer to qualify the initiatives for the 2018 ballot.
The coalition of labor, faith and community organizations celebrated the fact that volunteers gathered more than twice the necessary number of signatures.
Raise Up Massachusetts was also successful in getting the Fair Share Amendment on the 2018 ballot. The amendment would establish a 4 percent additional tax on annual income above $1 million, generating roughly $2 billion annually for public education and transportation.
Anabel Santiago, an organizer with the Coalition for Social Justice, said that the initiatives “honor the integrity of working people.”
But activists and workers were not the only ones speaking at today’s event.
Addressing the wage issue, business owner Michael Kanter voiced the support of Massachusetts businesses that are members of the national Business for a Fair Minimum Wage network. Kanter said his store in Cambridge has already boosted workers’ hourly pay to $15 and has benefited from making the move.