Maximus Worker Joins Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to Discuss $15 Minimum Wage

Last week, Sylvia Walker, a leader in organizing her co-workers at Maximus to join CWA, joined Labor Secretary Marty Walsh for a discussion of President Biden's new executive order to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $15 an hour.

Walker, who handles calls for the taxpayer-funded 1-800-MEDICARE line, thanked Secretary Walsh and President Biden for delivering on their promises. She shared how difficult it has been for her and her co-workers to live on poverty wages. She told Secretary Walsh that some of her coworkers make as little as $10.80 an hour and described how she's had to visit food banks just to get by during the pandemic. Walker said that many of her coworkers struggle to afford even basic healthcare services even though their job is to help Americans get access to affordable healthcare every day.

President Biden's executive order will transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of federal contract workers who have been earning poverty wages for far too long.

Check out the video from the event here.