Before Gov. Mark Dayton signed Minnesota's historic minimum wage bill, raising the hourly rate from $6.15 to $9.50 by 2016, Abera Siyoum awoke at 2:45 a.m. every day for his two-job, 60-hour workweek.
Now that the bill has been signed, Siyoum will awaken at 2:45 a.m. every day for his two-job, 60-hour workweek.
Siyoum, 36, is grateful, as we all should be, that the long-fought battle has been won. It's a battle that turned the soft-spoken father of two young children into a confident activist.
But he's a realist, too. While the wage increase will benefit more than 325,000 Minnesotans, "it will not stop most of us from working two jobs to cover the rent," said Siyoum, of St. Paul.
For that to happen, he'd need to make $15 an hour, at least.
So let's celebrate, then get back to work. The fight to level the playing field is far from over.
Dayton signed the bill April 14 to increase the minimum wage in two increments over the next two years. Until now, Minnesota has had one of the nations' lowest hourly wages, coupled with one of the Midwest's highest rental costs.
"People are excited, because any raise is better than nothing," said Dan Mendez Moore, a spokesman with SEIU Local 26, the state's property services union. But he noted that most workers still will have no health insurance, no sick days, no vacation time.