Fifteen Now

Fifteen Now: From the Streets of May Day to the Minnesota Supreme Court

Minneapolis, MN — January 22, 2020

On a spring day outside the annual May Day Festival—a long-standing cultural gathering in South Minneapolis—I stood shoulder to shoulder with other volunteers from Socialist Alternative and 15 Now, asking neighbors to believe in a simple, yet radical, idea: that no one should have to work full time and still live in poverty.

We were canvassing for a $15 minimum wage in the city of Minneapolis.

It was grassroots, it was local, and it was deeply necessary. At a time when the federal minimum wage had stagnated for over a decade, and working families were being priced out of the neighborhoods they’d built, the movement wasn’t just about economics—it was about dignity. Together, we helped win paid sick leave and extended pregnancy leave for workers in Minneapolis. Our tools were simple: pens, clipboards, and conversations. But the impact rippled through policy and precedent.

I also worked with Postcards for Change, an effort rooted in the same spirit. 

And then, in 2020, after years of resistance and legal challenges, the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld Minneapolis’s right to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour. In a 5-2 decision, the Court ruled against business groups who had argued the city overstepped its authority. The Court’s opinion affirmed what we had known all along: municipalities do have the power—and the moral obligation—to protect their workers.

This wasn’t just a legal victory. It was a moment of validation for every community member who had stood in the rain outside the May Day Festival, every worker who shared their story on a petition line, every volunteer who went door-to-door believing we could shape policy from the ground up.

It’s easy to talk about change. It’s harder to make it law.

But when people organize, persist, and demand better—not just for themselves, but for the future of their neighbors and their city—change becomes inevitable.

And it sticks.