Published November 9, 2020, this recap documents One Fair Wage’s service-worker voter mobilization program in the 2020 general election. Service workers voted in record numbers in Michigan and Pennsylvania — including thousands who had never voted before — and turned out to mobilizations demanding that every vote be counted.
In the 2020 cycle, One Fair Wage and One Fair Wage Action:
- Emailed, called, and texted 228,316 service workers who had applied to the OFW COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund — 66% of whom had never voted before — engaging them by focusing on their wages as a reason to vote.
- Developed nearly 2,000 worker leaders in Pennsylvania and Michigan, each mobilizing dozens of their peers to vote through EMPOWER, OFW’s peer-to-peer voter app.
- Mobilized nearly 50,000 low-wage, unlikely voters to cast ballots in Michigan and Pennsylvania through that peer-to-peer program.
Many of these workers were inspired to vote by the Biden campaign’s endorsement of One Fair Wage — a $15 minimum wage for all workers, including tipped workers — and then mobilized to make sure their votes, and all votes, were counted.
This report was originally published as a letter to OFW supporters. For the original documents or press inquiries, contact press@onefairwage.org.