PDA Progressive Town Hall: Sunday August 3, 2025 with guest Saru Jayaraman

Progressive Democrats of America Aug 4, 2025It’s been sixteen years since the federal minimum wage increased. A recent report found that 60 percent of American households can’t afford a minimal quality of life. Another recent report highlighted how expensive America is. The average family with two children needs $120,302 annually to meet basic needs. Saru Jayaraman has helped lead the fight to save the American Dream. Her campaigns have helped build worker power. Within the restaurant industry, she has confronted and even sometimes defeated powerful enemies like the National Restaurant Association and all the bad actors that pay sub-minimum wages. Shaped by the great crises of the 21st century—9/11, the Great Recession, and the COVID-19 Pandemic—Saru has kept organizing and is helping lead city and state campaigns and the national fight to win a living wage for all. Join us for this conversation as we talk strategy with Saru. We will plan how we can utilize and expand our grassroots networks to help build the movement to win a living wage for all. Then, in the second hour of the Town Hall, we’ll turn our attention to something that has always been a PDA priority: getting big money out of politics. Recently, we’ve had two great victories on this front in Arizona and North Carolina. In both states, the Democratic Party passed resolutions to remove big money from primaries. In both states, progressives led the effort; and PDA members and allies were at the heart of these campaigns. Already, similar resolutions are being introduced in a handful of other states. On Sunday, we’ll discuss how PDA will help expand this movement to every state Democratic Party, plus DC, the “territories,” and Democrats Abroad. By banning big money from Democratic primaries, we strike a blow against the oligarchs and for democracy!