Time for a Contract With America’s Working Families
Democrats need to show who and what we are going to fight for
Democrats and the progressive movement have two fundamental, profoundly important missions in the months and years ahead.
The first is to do everything in our power to resist the violent, unlawful, authoritarian regime that the Trump administration is pursuing. Yes, we need to be in the streets protesting, and we need to use our social media platforms to reach our friends and neighbors. Doing stuff like this.
But at the same time, we also need to regain the political support of working class Americans who have gotten cynical about politics and government. So yes to resistance, yes to demonstrations.
But let’s build a political narrative and infrastructure that makes sense to working people in their everyday lives.
That project starts with recreating the social contract.
The social contract that used to exist for working people in this country – the idea that workers were owed a decent wage and benefits and some dignity on the job – disappeared a long time ago in this country. It’s time to bring it back. And the idea of a decent corporate actor needs to extend beyond just the work place. Big business power needs to be reined in, and corporate abuses — from wage theft to non-compete clauses, from junk fees to crushing small business competition, from out-sourcing jobs to price gouging — need to be stopped.
There has been a group of us who have been talking for a while about creating a Contract for Working Families. Pulled together by Steve Rosenthal, the former Political Director of the AFL-CIO, the group came up with some language and an agenda that we think would resonate with working people.
(I have altered the original draft language a little in a few places.)
A Contract with Working Families
Working families are pissed off, and have every right to be. The deck has been stacked against us. We’ve been fed empty promises for decades by politicians who don’t live the same day-to-day struggles that we do. Too many of them don’t give a damn about us except when they need our votes. No more. We don’t need lip service — we need leaders who will stand up and fight like hell to deliver real change..
IT’S TIME FOR OUR ELECTED LEADERS TO SIGN A NEW CONTRACT WITH WORKING PEOPLE.
We’re not looking for handouts — we’re fighting to protect our hard-earned paychecks, to ensure our wages aren’t eroded by rising prices, and to provide a decent standard of living for our families. We demand good jobs with living wages to give our families a life with the dignity they deserve — dignity at work and at home.
Note to politicians: this isn’t about crafting a “winning message” or winning elections. It’s about committing to a real agenda that changes the rules to give working families a chance. Both parties claim to stand with working people, but they can’t unless they embrace this agenda, campaign on these issues, and fight like hell to enact them once they get elected. No more excuses. It’s time to act.
We call for ending corporate price gouging, where CEOs profit while workers struggle.
We call for affordable health care, child care, and housing. We demand more power in the workplace, including the right to organize into unions without fear of being fired. We need a check on corporate power so working people and small businesses are not squeezed. We want strong communities where people look out for one another and protect the freedoms that make America home.
Our Agenda: A Call for Bold Action from Elected Leaders, Candidates, and Political Parties
1. Good Jobs, Good Wages, Fair Trade
Cut taxes for working families through an expanded child tax credit.
A living minimum wage for all working people — maybe that’s $30 in the highest cost of living places like NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, maybe $25 everyplace else. Make sure it is paid to all working people, including restaurant workers, and make sure it is tied to inflation.
Strengthen workers’ rights and create good-paying jobs. Support the PRO Act to make it easier for workers to bargain for better wages and benefits and for all workers who want a union to have one.
Negotiate trade deals that are tough and fair and protect American workers, not global companies. Tariffs should be used on a targeted basis to expand vital American industries like steel and auto, not mindlessly slapped on countries across the board in a way that will cause the price of everyday goods to soar, further threatening our standard of living. Ensure big companies don’t write the rules while working people pay the price.
No tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Invest in American industries and workers.
End wage theft, overtime abuse, and non-compete clauses.. It’s time to close loopholes that allow employers to cheat workers out of overtime pay.
2. Get big money out of politics and End Congressional Corruption
End Citizens United to stop unlimited billionaire spending on political campaigns.
Prevent members of Congress from getting rich in office. Ban stock trading by members of congress.
Outlaw members of congress from accepting flights on corporate or private jets.
Run and elect more working people to office.
3. Affordable Care for Families
End corporate price gouging in health care. Implement a windfall profits tax on corporations that exploit consumers. Allow Medicare to negotiate all prescription drug prices, like the VA and other countries do. Cap insulin costs and other life-saving medication costs for everyone. Require insurance companies to cover treatment ordered by their doctors.
Make health care more affordable. Lower ACA premiums. Cap medical debt at $5,000. Fully fund and expand Medicaid so families can get the care they need.
Expand affordable child care. Cap child care costs at 7% of family income and offer a $5,000 per child tax credit for families earning under $400,000.
Make elder care affordable and reliable. Expand home care for seniors and people with disabilities. Raise wages for care workers so they can stay on the job and deliver quality care.
Protect, expand, and stabilize Social Security and Medicare. Expand Social Security by $2,400 per year and apply the Social Security payroll tax on all income over $250,000. This will fully fund Social Security for 75 years and the extra tax will not be paid by 91% of US households.
Expand Medicare to include dental, hearing and vision care.
4. Hold Corporations Accountable, Stop Price-Gouging and Make Billionaires and Corporations Pay Their Fair Share
Make corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of taxes. Elon Musk’s Tesla, valued at over $1 trillion, paid ZERO in US taxes last year. Everyone—not just the middle class—should pay their fair share.
Put an annual tax on all wealth over $50 million and a higher rate on all wealth over $1 billion.
Crack down on price gouging and monopolies. Families are getting crushed while corporate profits soar. It’s time for strict enforcement and real penalties.
Lower costs for everyday essentials. Gas prices are sky-high, groceries are through the roof, and hidden bank fees are draining wallets. We must lower credit card interest rates and stop big banks’ predatory fees.
End tax breaks and ban stock buybacks for companies that engage in mass layoffs.
5. Invest in Working People’s Future
Build more affordable housing, create good-paying union construction jobs, and ensure families can afford to stay in their homes.
Invest in public schools and job training. Every child deserves a quality education, a healthy meal, and a chance of success. Let’s make college more affordable and expand job training so everyone has a pathway to a good job.
Working people need a new contract, and political leaders who will fight for us.
While Trump wages trade wars, bullies our allies, and hands out tax breaks to billionaires, working families are struggling to stay afloat. We must reject the chaos and corporate greed and fight for an economy that works for all of us — not just the wealthy few.
This is not just a plan. It’s a commitment, a promise, a contract with the people who keep this country running.
We cannot afford to wait. The time to act is now. Join us — stand up, speak out, and demand a better future for working families.
This is the kind of contract with working families politicians should embrace. It’s time for the Democratic Party to figure out that fighting for a specific agenda for working folks, fighting for policies and values they would give a damn about, is the way forward. Democrats should be campaigning on this kind of agenda.
Scared of an agenda this big and bold? America’s working people are not. Poll after poll, focus group after focus group, shows that voters want big changes in how the economy works. The latest example? Check out this language from One Fair Wage on the most recent poll they did on the minimum wage.
A poll I helped do a couple of years back asked people whether they could support Democratic candidates, using a split sample to test a few different ways to describe the candidate. We tested moderate Democrat, progressive Democratic, liberal Democrat, conservative Democrat. None of those were particularly popular, but when we tested the phrase “working class Democrat”, support shot way up — it was easily the most popular description.
Democrats need to become the party of working people again, the way we used to be thought of by most people. And we need to fight for an agenda that can get them excited.
Great piece, Mike. The dual mission you're describing -- resistance yes, but also re-earning the trust and support of working class folks -- is so essential. I fear that too many progressives and Dems are only paying lip service to the working class half of that equation.
In electoral terms, if we run another anti-Trump campaign without something like the contract you propose, Dems may squeak by and win the House next year. But we won't be laying the groundwork for 2028. And more importantly, we'll be failing working class families yet again.