National Civil Rights Leaders To Back New York Living Wage Bill At Black History Month Event
Photos: YouTube Screenshots New York, NY — On Friday, February 20, at 9:00 AM, in an event marking the 100th anniversary year of Black History Month, Derrick Johnson, President of the NAACP; Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League; L. Joy Williams, Chair of the New York NAACP; and New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam, member of the Exonerated Five, will join restaurant workers, small business owners, and labor advocates at the New York Hilton Midtown during the NAACP national leadership convening to call for passage Living Wage For All legislation – newly-introduced in New York City and New York State, and soon to be introduced federally. The legislation in all three places would raise the minimum wage for all workers closer to the cost of living (at least $30 in New York and $25 federally) and end all subminimum wages, especially those that are legacies of slavery. The press conference will confront what leaders describe as the unfinished economic legacy of slavery. During the Civil Rights Movement, activists desegregated lunch counters and opened public accommodations. Yet the wage system behind those counters remained divided, preserving a two-tiered structure that still allows employers in much of the country to pay tipped workers as little as $2.13 an hour, and incarcerated workers under $1 per hour. Speakers will highlight how the subminimum wage for tipped workers traces back to post-Emancipation labor practices that pushed Black workers into tip-dependent jobs with no guaranteed pay, and how the National Restaurant Association has spent decades lobbying to preserve that system. Leaders will also warn that the National Restaurant Association and its corporate backers are pushing Congress to pass the deceptively named Tipped Employee Protection Act (H.R. 2312), which would expand the subminimum wage for tipped workers and weaken worker protections nationwide. Drawing on the legacy of civil rights leaders like John Lewis, speakers will frame this moment as a clear choice between siding with corporate restaurant lobbyists or standing with workers in the fight for a living wage for all, with no exceptions. During the event, One Fair Wage will distribute a new report, Still Waiting for Equal Pay, documenting how the $2.13 tipped wage suppresses earnings and exacerbates the race and gender pay gap. The report finds that Black women tipped workers make just 63 cents for every dollar earned by white men in the same industry. Participants will call on New York lawmakers to pass the Living Wage For All bill and end all subminimum wage exceptions, arguing that economic dignity is inseparable from civil rights and that wage exclusion anywhere weakens standards everywhere. Event Details: WHAT: Press conference calling for passage of New York State and New York City Living Wage For All Acts, and for Congress to follow suit. The Living Wage For All bills would raise the minimum wage closer to the cost of living and end all subminimum wages, including the subminimum wage for tipped workers, which is a direct legacy of slavery WHEN: Friday, February 20, 2026 | 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM WHERE: New York Hilton Midtown (Held during the NAACP National Leadership Convening) WHO: Derrick Johnson, President of the NAACP Jerika Richardson, SVP of Equitable Justice & Strategic Initiatives, National Urban League L. Joy Williams, Chair of the New York NAACP New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam, member of the Exonerated Five Claude Cummings, President of The Communications Workers of America Union Robin Williams, National Labor Committee Chair, NAACP Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage Rabbi Jonah Pesner, NAACP Board Member Tipped restaurant workers and small business owners Representative, 13th Forward Coalition Donna Hylton, Author, A Little Piece of Light Labor, racial justice, immigrant rights, and women’s rights organizations
Black News 
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
New York, NY — On Friday, February 20, at 9:00 AM, in an event marking the 100th anniversary year of Black History Month, Derrick Johnson, President of the NAACP; Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League; L. Joy Williams, Chair of the New York NAACP; and New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam, member of the Exonerated Five, will join restaurant workers, small business owners, and labor advocates at the New York Hilton Midtown during the NAACP national leadership convening to call for passage Living Wage For All legislation – newly-introduced in New York City and New York State, and soon to be introduced federally. The legislation in all three places would raise the minimum wage for all workers closer to the cost of living (at least $30 in New York and $25 federally) and end all subminimum wages, especially those that are legacies of slavery.
The press conference will confront what leaders describe as the unfinished economic legacy of slavery. During the Civil Rights Movement, activists desegregated lunch counters and opened public accommodations. Yet the wage system behind those counters remained divided, preserving a two-tiered structure that still allows employers in much of the country to pay tipped workers as little as $2.13 an hour, and incarcerated workers under $1 per hour.
Speakers will highlight how the subminimum wage for tipped workers traces back to post-Emancipation labor practices that pushed Black workers into tip-dependent jobs with no guaranteed pay, and how the National Restaurant Association has spent decades lobbying to preserve that system.
Leaders will also warn that the National Restaurant Association and its corporate backers are pushing Congress to pass the deceptively named Tipped Employee Protection Act (H.R. 2312), which would expand the subminimum wage for tipped workers and weaken worker protections nationwide.
Drawing on the legacy of civil rights leaders like John Lewis, speakers will frame this moment as a clear choice between siding with corporate restaurant lobbyists or standing with workers in the fight for a living wage for all, with no exceptions.
During the event, One Fair Wage will distribute a new report, Still Waiting for Equal Pay, documenting how the $2.13 tipped wage suppresses earnings and exacerbates the race and gender pay gap. The report finds that Black women tipped workers make just 63 cents for every dollar earned by white men in the same industry.
Participants will call on New York lawmakers to pass the Living Wage For All bill and end all subminimum wage exceptions, arguing that economic dignity is inseparable from civil rights and that wage exclusion anywhere weakens standards everywhere.
Event Details:
WHAT: Press conference calling for passage of New York State and New York City Living Wage For All Acts, and for Congress to follow suit. The Living Wage For All bills would raise the minimum wage closer to the cost of living and end all subminimum wages, including the subminimum wage for tipped workers, which is a direct legacy of slavery
WHEN: Friday, February 20, 2026 | 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM
WHERE: New York Hilton Midtown (Held during the NAACP National Leadership Convening)
WHO:
- Derrick Johnson, President of the NAACP
- Jerika Richardson, SVP of Equitable Justice & Strategic Initiatives, National Urban League
- L. Joy Williams, Chair of the New York NAACP
- New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam, member of the Exonerated Five
- Claude Cummings, President of The Communications Workers of America Union
- Robin Williams, National Labor Committee Chair, NAACP
- Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage
- Rabbi Jonah Pesner, NAACP Board Member
- Tipped restaurant workers and small business owners
- Representative, 13th Forward Coalition Donna Hylton, Author, A Little Piece of Light
- Labor, racial justice, immigrant rights, and women’s rights organizations
