The Fight for $15, a national movement that led hundreds of people to a rally on Brookings steps on Wednesday, is quickly establishing itself as yet another cause clamoring for Washington University students’ attention. We understand—as the semester draws to a close and we begin to look up from our books and out toward the summer months, it can seem appealing, even easy, to sweep another issue of social justice under the rug.

Megan Magray

But the Fight for $15 is more than just cobwebs from protests gone by. It cannot be pushed aside. Although its presence on our campus may feel new, this campaign is thoroughly intertwined with so many other movements that it simply demands our attention.

The fight is an issue of race. Almost half of the people who work minimum-wage jobs across America are people of color, even though they make up just a third of the overall workforce. The economic oppression of minority communities, whose members are so often caught in a vicious cycle of poverty perpetuated by minimum-wage jobs that leave them far below the poverty line, is a modern manifestation of the systemic racism that continues to plague our country. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, and Missouri’s minimum wage is a mere 40 cents more. Neither of these is sufficient for a family to afford sufficient housing for a year, much less food, utilities, education, childcare and all of life’s other expenses. A higher minimum wage would allow these Americans to live a life that’s more than the time between paychecks and to break out of the cycle of poverty.

The fight is an issue of age. Many minimum-wage workers are young adults whose voices are often fall upon deaf ears for fault of being “too young” or “too naive.” In an era of skyrocketing costs of higher education, millions of students stretch themselves to the limit, working minimum-wage jobs to help cover expenses, including student loans that can haunt them long after graduation. Often, they may feel invisible as they struggle to build a foundation for themselves that will last for a lifetime. Increasingly, though, minimum-wage workers are older Americans forced to work these jobs to get by after being laid off or to support their families.

Megan Magray

The fight is an issue of gender. Almost two-thirds of minimum-wage workers are women. African-American women alone make up 16 percent of the minimum-wage workforce; Hispanic women, 17 percent. Simply put, women are disproportionately impacted by a low minimum wage.

The fight is an issue of our own community, both across St. Louis and expressly on the Danforth campus. For the former, a number of the rally’s attendees and speakers are members of the Faculty Forward movement, pushing not for $15 an hour but $15,000 per course they teach. This issue affects Washington University faculty members, a number of whom are adjuncts making less than a living wage, and students who plan on pursuing a Ph.D. in their academic futures.

The fight is about life and the ever-changing needs of those who live it. The stigma attached to those who work minimum-wage jobs is the same as in many other issues plaguing our society. Same plot, different story.

It is not just about flipping burgers and waiting tables. It is not even about the work itself, really. The fight is about so much more, and to minimize the significance of minimum wage is to turn a blind eye to a myriad of the very social issues that we claim to want to fix. Now is not the time to get tired of the fight. It’s the time to build each other up and tackle these problems as a whole. The Fight for $15 is a good place to start.