Prince George’s workers generate billions for Amazon warehouses, federal contractors, and the ports up the road, yet too many are stuck on $15-an-hour gigs with shifts that change at the last minute. Meanwhile S&P 500 CEOs now make 344 times what their employees earn. That is not a labor market; it is a siphon. Work should buy stability, dignity, and a future - not a second job at midnight.

The plan

1. Raise the floor

   • Set a $20 federal minimum wage and index it to inflation so Congress never again lets paychecks fall behind prices.

   • Phase in wage hikes faster for tipped and disabled workers - no carve-outs.

2. Make unionizing the default, not the fight of your life

   • Pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act: card-check recognition, first-contract arbitration.

   • Union busting? Million-dollar fine.

   • Ban so-called “right-to-work” laws that kneecap unions in twenty-six states.

3. Sector-wide collective bargaining

   • Start with care, warehouse, and fast-food industries so companies compete on service, not who can union-bust cheapest.

   • Federal wage boards set baseline pay and benefits, local unions negotiate up from there.

4. Fair work schedules and gig-economy protections

   • Require two-week schedule notice and time-and-a-half pay if bosses change shifts inside 24 hours.

   • Reclassify app drivers and delivery workers as employees with overtime, unemployment, and workers’ comp.

5. Climate jobs you can retire on

   • Fund a Civilian Climate Corps that hires people at union rates to rebuild transit, wetlands, and energy-efficient housing.

   • Tie every federal contract to a local-hire requirement and a living-wage floor.

6. Portable benefits and paid leave

   • Create a national benefits account that follows workers across jobs and gigs.

   • Guarantee twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave funded by a small payroll premium.

How we pay

• Add a 2 percent surtax on corporate stock buybacks (~$40–50 billion/year).

• Close offshore tax deferral and loopholes for multinational corporations.

• Repeal accelerated depreciation for private equity–owned real estate.

• Create a payroll split (employee + employer) to fund national paid leave.

• Add a small financial speculation fee on short-term derivatives trading.

• Wealth Reclaim Pillar: Jobs and Labor, this pillar of the Wealth Reclamation Tax will also be funded by a 0.5% tax on Wall Street transactions — reclaiming wealth from unchecked speculation and reinvesting it in the people and communities it was extracted from.

Work should bankroll a life, not just cover the bills; let’s lift wages until that’s exactly what every paycheck does.