Introduction by Kenny Ausubel, Bioneers Co-Founder and CEO.

A large coalition of labor and community organizations has launched a national “Living Wage for All” campaign, a bold push to address the affordability crisis, a centerpiece of which is raising the minimum wage closer to the actual cost of living (at least $25 nationwide and $30 in higher-cost regions) for all workers, with no exceptions. This is of course worth doing simply for the sake of fairness and justice, so that all of us can make ends meet and lead dignified lives, but it’s even more critically important in this dangerous historical moment. Many working people, feeling betrayed by elites, have concluded that our system of government hasn’t worked for them, and some have been seduced by far-right “fake populism.” According to Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage, one of the most effective, tireless advocates for working people in the nation, we can rally many working people to the urgent defense against plundering kleptocratic authoritarianism, but only if we demonstrate to them that democracy is worth saving by insisting on making it responsive to their economic struggles. This effort could very well be the key element in any strategy that will permit us to successfully resist the oligarchic coup now underway.

This talk was delivered at the 2026 Bioneers Conference.

Saru Jayaraman (JD, Yale, MPP Harvard), an academic at UC Berkeley and a renowned labor activist, is President of One Fair Wage, which organizes to raise wages and end sub-minimum wages nationwide. She has won numerous awards for her activism, including being named: one of CNN’s “Top10 Visionary Women,” a White House Champion of Change, a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award winner, and a San Francisco Chronicle ‘Visionary of the Year.’ Saru, who is interviewed and cited frequently in major media outlets, is author of: Behind the Kitchen Door; Forked: A New Standard for American Dining; and One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America.

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