February 1, 2019

Dear General Assembly member:

No one who works full-time should have to struggle to provide for their family.

That’s why Delaware Democrats support our state’s working families and strongly
believe in working toward a $15 minimum wage. That’s not just my opinion as State
Party Chair, it’s straight out of our Party platform.

So like many Democrats, I was dismayed to learn about the eleventh hour deal to
create a “training wage” carve out to last year’s minimum wage increase. We have
worked hard in recent years to raise wages for those at the bottom of our economic
ladder, and to put it plainly, this felt like a significant setback in that fight. That’s
because the training wage is a deeply flawed policy based on whole slate of
assumptions that belie a misunderstanding of the reality faced by Delaware’s
working poor.

This isn’t about the teenage lifeguard working for Rep. Ramone who will take home
a little less money this summer, it’s about the household that relies on the oldest
teenager’s income to put food on the table for the rest of the siblings.

It’s about being a Party that actually means equal pay for equal work when we say it
as press conferences.

It’s about not undercutting the job market for adults who need work because young
people are cheaper to hire.

I worked in Legislative Hall. I understand that making deals is part of the legislative
process and it’s more than valid when it leads to meaningful progress for
Delawareans. But this was a hostage taking exercise by a Republican minority,
which was willing to jeopardize the core functions of government because they
couldn’t block a popular policy initiative ahead of the election.

And if they’re allowed to dictate our policy priorities, will they have new demands
this June? Or will they have learned from President Trump’s failed government
shutdown and come to realize that grinding the government to a halt when you can’t
get your way is no way to govern?
This is a new General Assembly, with 11 newly elected Democrats, all who have
their own promises to keep to the voters that overwhelmingly sent them to Dover.
We know through our own internal polling that raising the minimum wage is wildly
popular across Party lines, despite what special interest groups might lead you to
believe. Sixty percent of all voters want a $15 minimum wage, while more than 70
percent support a $10 minimum wage.

House Bill 47, sponsored by more than 30 Democrats, gives us a chance to affirm
our shared support for working families and undo a shortsighted piece of legislation
that passed under a cloud of bad faith. The Delaware Democratic Party stands with
our progressive allies and friends in organized labor who are calling for its passage.

Respectfully,

Erik Raser-Schramm
Chairman, Delaware Democratic Party