Poverty Action Network along with Wisconsin Students for Democrats teamed up over the past 60 days with the ultimate goal of gathering enough signatures to support raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.75 for regular employees and from $2.33 to $3.88 for tipped employees.
The deadline to have 12,800 signatures was Thursday night at 8 p.m.
“While we haven’t taken a final count, we are positive we have raised enough signatures,” said Volunteer Coordinator Julie Shevrin.
Friday morning at 9:45, those involved with the cause are holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall in order to discuss the next step in the fight to raise the minimum wage.
Madison is following in the footsteps of San Francisco and Santa Fe, as both cities have recently voted to raise the city minimum wage. San Francisco’s is now at $8.50, as is Santa Fe’s.
“This is an issue that Madison has really gotten behind. There seems to be a lot of support for raising the minimum wage,” said District 8 Ald. Austin King. “We could stand in Library Mall for an hour and come out with hundreds of signatures. The hard part was getting the last couple of hundred; the volunteers had to go out and canvass the neighborhoods, going from door to door.”
Ninety percent of Madison businesses are already paying their employees $7.75 or above.
“It’s really only 10 percent that we’re targeting. But it’s an important 10 percent,” King said.
Since 90 percent of businesses already support the ruling, the bill has a greater chance of passing, according to studies.
“We really don’t think we’re overshooting at all by asking for $7.75,” Shevrin said. “If you take into account the economy and cost of living, the minimum wage should be up to $13 or $14 an hour by now. If a person worked 40 hours a week at $7.75 an hour, they still would be living only slightly above poverty level.”
“The hardest part of the entire ordeal was just getting the 12,800 signatures. I don’t think anybody realizes just how huge a number that is,” King said. “And we had hundreds of volunteers; they were really the heart of the project. Without them, this never would have gotten done.”
The signatures will be on display at today’s press conference.
“While we had tons of volunteers, it really was a struggle to try and get enough people who would be able to get out into the neighborhoods and stand in Library Mall for hours on end,” Shevrin said. “I think that was the most difficult part of this whole project.”
