While selling Street Sense papers in front of Whole Foods, I met John Zottoli. He was campaigning for the Raise the Wage coalition at the time – aiming to put a minimum wage increase on the November ballot for District voters. Intrigued, I interviewed him on the spot:
John Zottoli: I’m working on a project to raise the minimum wage to $15. It’s a group that’s doing is called Raise the Wage, it’s a coalition. Working Families is one of the major leaders in this coalition. And we have to get, I think, 21,000 D.C. voters to tell the board of elections to put this law on the ballot.
Collins: And how are you going to do it?
JZ: We have people going out on the street talking to voters and asking them to sign a petition to get the minimum wage on the November ballot.
Collins: What about business owners–forget Whole Foods–what about small business owners? What are their ideas, what are they saying about it?
JZ: If everybody was making $15 per hour, we’d all have more money to spend. I think it would mean more opportunities for the businesses.
Collins: Let’s say I’m in high school and I need a job. How do I expect that I’ll get hired to work for a $15 job when you have someone that has a college degree and more experience applying for the same job — How could I expect to compete? Look around at Whole Foods, at who is working there right now.
JZ: $15 is the floor, that’s the minimum. I think people that have more skills and more education will get more than $15. So there are jobs for people at $15 and there are jobs for people at higher pay.
Collins: But many companies are now turning to automatic. Well for example, McDonalds: they’re putting up kiosks, technically robots, to replace humans. To replace that $15 per hour position. They are getting rid of cashiers and replacing with self-pay. People are getting laid off or are getting less hours at their job. What’s your solution?
JZ: We’re hoping there will be more opportunities for better jobs. I think we need to learn how to do jobs that machines can’t do. And those jobs will pay better.