Gabriel Hodgkin

Gabriel Hodgkin
2017 Undergraduate Fellow Social Studies

Thesis title and description:
“Movement Strategy and Outcomes in the Fight for $15”

My thesis will focus on the Fight for $15, a social movement in the United States for a living wage and union rights. The movement began in 2012 with a strike by fast food workers in New York City. With financial and organizational backing from the Service Employees International Union, it has since expanded to include low-wage workers from airport employees to adjunct professors. According to the New York Times, a $15 minimum wage was “laughable” in 2012. Against all odds, the movement has won $15 in Seattle, New York, and California, along with smaller minimum wage increases in municipalities around the country. My research will focus on strategic and tactical choices to explore how organizers have built a movement city by city and why some chapters have won impressive minimum wage increases.