Raise WI

09/11/2025

"At a time of a cost-of-living crisis, the rent keeps going up, housing prices are out of control, no one can afford health care, to put food on the table and pay the bills on time, we need real living wages for every person who works here in Wisconsin. About a third of the people in our state who punch a clock, bring home a wage less than $20 an hour. There's not a single county in Wisconsin where you can get by on anything less than $20 an hour. Some MIT economic researchers have determined that a living wage in Wisconsin for just a single adult starts at around $21 per hour. When a third of our workforce makes less than a living wage, we have an economic and social crisis."

Wisconsin's minimum wage is currently at $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum. A coalition of labor and progressive groups are campaigning for a boost to $20 per hour.

08/29/2025

Working Wisconsin needs a raise. On Tuesday, we're launching an effort to fight for a $20 minimum wage that meets the needs of Wisconsin's workers. Now more than ever we struggle with rising costs overwhelming family budgets. Housing, childcare and healthcare have become unaffordable while food and....

02/09/2018

Our Raise WI campaign in 2014 led directly to the victory for a community benefits agreement covering end-use jobs in the new arena and surrounding development in downtown Milwaukee. Now, Milwaukee Area Service & Hospitality Workers Organization has launched to implement the agreement for $15 and a union jobs with a hiring hall. Workers who want good, living wage jobs with career pathways in the service and hospitality sectors should sign up with MASH at

MASH raises standards for service and hospitality sector employment. We are an organization of service and hospitality workers. We raise wage floors, so our jobs pay a living wage. We uphold workers’ rights, so our jobs provide economic security and respect in the workplace. We provide training, p...

09/01/2016

Wisconsin working people need a raise and a living wage, and that's why 63% of our state's voters support a $15 minimum wage.
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04/29/2015

"A $15 minimum wage for me is the difference between living on the brink of poverty and having a little breathing room." Sign the petition to support Melissa Agard Sargent's bill for a $15 minimum wage! http://bit.ly/fairShake

Show your support for a $15 minimum wage by signing the petition! http://bit.ly/fairShake

11/21/2014

On Tuesday, the school board walked out on our EAs who came to testify about the poverty wages they are paid, but the board walked out on them. Tonight, while EAs…

11/20/2014

- From Think Progress: Gov. Scott Walker (R) will propose a system for drug testing everyone who receives unemployment insurance or food stamps from the state.

Drug testing for public assistance recipients has found lower rates of drug use among people on the dole than among the general population, and costs taxpayers lots of money in the process. Gov. Scott Walker (R) plans to replicate that failure in Wisconsin.

11/20/2014

Stay classy, Kmart.

Most still don't know their schedules, even with Thanksgiving a week away, but most who do have to work on the holiday.

11/19/2014

"What exactly is a living wage here in Wisconsin?" asks Wisconsin Public Radio.

What exactly is a living wage here in Wisconsin?

11/19/2014

"Nearly half of all child-care workers are so poor that they qualify for public assistance like food stamps, Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit," writes Washington Post.

Parents are paying twice what they did for child care in 1989. Yet low-paid teachers still qualify for public benefits.

11/19/2014

Bay Area home care workers took arrests yesterday in the !

Today, I was arrested with courageous home care leaders demanding a $15 an hour wage in high-tech, high-cost San Mateo County - SEIU Local 521 President Luisa Blue and home care providers Tonya York and Myrna Bravo.