Bernie Sanders campaign announces it will cut hours to pay staffers $15 minimum wage

[RandySF]

The Washington Post first reported that Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign is cutting staffers hours in order to pay them the equivalent of a $15-an-hour wage, something Sanders for years has said should be the federal minimum.

Campaign manager Faiz Shakir told the Washington Post, “The Sanders campaign late Thursday issued a statement lauding its union contract. “We know our campaign offers wages and benefits competitive with other campaigns, as is shown by the latest fundraising reports, every member of the campaign, from the candidate on down, joined this movement in order to defeat Donald Trump and transform America. Bernie Sanders is the most pro-worker and pro-labor candidate running for president. We have tremendous staff who are working hard. Bernie and I both strongly believe in the sanctity of the collective bargaining process and we will not deviate from our commitment to it.”


https://www.kusi.com/bernie-sanders-campaign-announces-it-will-cut-hours-to-pay-staffers-15-minimum-wage/

[George II]

1. ....

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. LoL!

[AJT]

2. This exactly what business claim will happen if there is a $15

minimum wage, and here it is happening in the campaign of one of the loudest voices for raising the minimum wage. Sanders claimed that a $15 won't affect employment, but apparently it does.

[Blue_true]

11. Yeah, a massive fumble.

CentralMass explains that the campaign is simply cutting the number of hours people work for their salary, if so, that is actually positive, but the campaign gave a garbled statement.

[CentralMass]

3. Limiting the hours to 42 a week if I recall the details + benefits. This is a problem ?

[Princetonian]

4. No problem with me. That's great! Bernie is putting his campaign's money where his mouth is.

[yaesu]

5. its not a problem and is excellent for what is basically a non profit. nt

[Blue_true]

12. They should state it as you did.

No it is not a problem to have people work less hours for the same salary, but the Press release did not define it in those terms.

[brooklynite]

6. Why isn't Sanders getting rid of volunteers?

Aren't they essentially taking paid work away from the employees?

[CentralMass]

7. I have no idea what it takes to run a campain but based on some numbers in this article.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/07/19/bernie-sanders-campaign-staff-wage-15-dollars-per-hour-union/1781581001/

It look like the campaign has 3 employee grades.
1. Field Organizer - $ 36,000
2, Field Directors - $ 48,000
3. Department Directors- $90,000

"Sanders employs 48 people in Iowa."

So Iowa nsybe a special case but assuming those 48 employees are the lowest paid at $ 36,000/year × 48 = $ 1.728 million . Low ballling it as there are probably higher oaid employees in the mix. If this model was the same in all states that is $86.4 million.

I've seenthe Sanders volunteer sign up.
The volunteer opportunities include:
1. Host an event
2. Attend an event
3. Knock on doors
4. Make calls
5. Send texts.

I have no idea if there is compensation for hosting events but I suspect there might be. So at roughly $90,000,000 in paid staff (my wild guess), volunteers for these other activites seems reasonable. There are people who are glad to volunteer for these things.

[Blue_true]

13. A department director makes almost 2x what a field director does.

How many DDs are there? Can some of the DD money be better spent paying more for the lower levels? How does Sanders campaign hiearchy compare to Warren? Why isn't Warren and the other campaigns having labor issues?

[CentralMass]

15. I would suggest that Sanders campaign is not having labor issues and that at this point

Last edited Wed Aug 7, 2019, 01:19 AM - Edit history (1)

his campaign is ahead of the other campaign in this space. He has unionized workers with a contract with benefits and hourly wage of at least $15/hr with a max of 42 hours..

If you can find any of the other campaigns doing better or even as good please post the links.

[Blue_true]

16. If his campaign treats workers better, why aren't workers from the other campaigns complaining?

Answer that simple question. If he is ahead and HIS workers revolted, the workers in other campaigns should be pissed, yet that does not seem to be the case.

[CentralMass]

17. I did a quick google search and it would seem the Senator Harris has had

even recently a gender pay gap where she was paying male staffers more the female staffers. I can find no articles on what the other campaigns are paying their workers and if they are providing benefits and paying $15/hr.
So again. Sanders campaign is ahead of all the other campaigns on this issue. There were a few minor kinks that have been worked out. Show me data showing that any other campaign is compensating their workers better.

[Blue_true]

18. The workers in other campaigns have not complained.

So either problems got fixed in other campaigns when they were found, or Sanders has more people in his campaign that are in it to get ahead.

It is a simple proposition. Why aren't other campaigns being roiled about pay if Sanders is so far out front on pay? You keep dancing around that simple reality.

[Gothmog]

9. Who is surprised by this?

[Blue_true]

10. Wow.

Talk about giving the right a ready made campaign ad. One thing the right insists a higher minimum wage will do is reduce people's work hours and/or the number of jobs.

Why didn't he say that he was raising peoples' annual salaries to compensate them properly for the hours they work?

[Starry Messenger]

14. There isn't any way they can cut hours

Practically speaking. Campaigns are a job entailing long hours. I predict rough sledding ahead unless they are going to double the staff.