Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Fight For $15 Rally

November 10, 2015

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you so much, Chantel. Brothers and sisters, good morning.

[Good morning]

Look, it’s simple – it’s simple, family in this city can’t live on the minimum wage they have now. And for a long time you’ve been fighting to get that simple truth across. Minimum wage has to be enough for a family to live on. That’s why you’ve been fighting for $15 dollars an hour. And what you’ve done has already changed this city, changed this state, and changed this nation. The Fight for $15 has had an extraordinary impact in the last year. You have a lot to be proud of, give yourselves a round of applause.

[Applause]

Because a year or two ago people said it was impossible. I remember – I remember how many people said $15 dollars an hour was out of reach, that you were just dreamers. You were trying to do something that couldn’t be done, but you know what you did – you changed things. You took the impossible and you made it possible. $15 dollars, think about it for a moment – $15 dollars for a family to live on. In this city, we have well over a million people who don’t make $15 dollars an hour – a million people trying to struggle to get by. And this movement shined a light on that reality, and said we’re not going to go on like that. We are not going to live a tale of two cities. We’re not going to have a city where people are below the poverty line when we can lift them up with a decent minimum wage, we’re not going to live that way. And by the way, all over this country people are saying the same thing. Is this the America we believe in – when someone works all day long and they still can’t get by. No, we deserve better. Working people deserve better. The fight for $15 is working; it is succeeding. We now need to take it to the next level. We need the $15 dollar minimum wage to be the law of this state; we need it to be something that people get all over this city, not just fast food workers – everyone deserves a $15 dollar minimum wage.

[Applause]

And we know – we know your voices are being heard all over the country. This country cannot be strong – this country can’t be what it’s supposed to be if people don’t make a decent wage. So keep fighting because you are winning – keep fighting, brothers and sisters. This is the good fight, and you’re going to take it through to victory. God bless you all.