Sanders rallies for $15 minimum wage

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) rallied Wednesday with hundreds of striking government workers who are calling for wages of $15 an hour and the right to form a union.

“The United States government should not be the largest low-wage employer,” Sanders said. “It should be the best employer in America.”

The Democratic presidential candidate is pushing legislation that would raise the minimum wage for all workers to $15 an hour by 2020. It’s part of a larger effort by Sanders to turn the spotlight on income inequality on the campaign trail.

{mosads}Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) are introducing identical minimum wage legislation in the House.

The minimum wage bills are believed to be the highest ever proposed in Congress — and are non-starters with the Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

“I think $15 is the minimum someone needs to live in this country with dignity,” Sanders said Wednesday at the strike. “If you work 40 hours a week, you have a right not to be living in poverty.”

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which Sanders called a “starvation wage.”

President Obama signed an executive order last year raising the minimum wage for government contractors to $10.10 an hour, but it only applies to workers whose companies do business with the federal government.

Congress would have to act to raise the minimum wage for all workers.

Democratic 2016 front-runner Hillary Clinton backs raising the minimum wage and spoke at a rally with groups who back setting it at $15, but has yet to officially endorse that figure. Former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-Md.), another contender, backs a $15 minimum wage.

Sanders’s bill would go further than one proposed earlier this year by fellow Democrat Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), who suggested raising it to $12 an hour.

Murray’s Raise the Wage Act quickly garnered support from the Obama administration and top Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. The problem is all of the wealth rests in the hands of a few billionaires,” Sanders said.

“All of our workers from coast to coast need at least $15 an hour,” he added.