Economic Justice aims to create and successfully provide financial prosperity for all community members—particularly those who’ve been economically marginalized.

Make the Road Nevada believes in advocating for people who are disproportionately affected by current policies, practices, or lack of support deserve sufficient institutional change for equal opportunity.

In Nevada, we’re seeing these disparities across the board for black and brown workers, being given little to no access or resources to unemployment insurance, fair employee work weeks, and unliveable wages.

We Won the First Earn Paid Sick Days Law in Nevada: Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak signed SB 312 in 2019, which now requires Nevada private-sector employers provide employees with up to 40 hours of paid leave per benefit year. This win even was expanded in light of the pandemic in October of 2021; employers must provide additional paid leave for COVID-19 vaccination, allowing employees to use existing paid leave to care for themselves and their family.

Raised the State Minimum Wage to $12.00:  In 2019, we pushed for and succeeded in having Nevada’s legislature pass Assembly Bill 456 (AB 456), which implemented annual minimum wage increases each July until 2024, leading up to $12.00 per hour.

Provided Stimulus Cash Assistance To Excluded Communities: In the wake of the pandemic and its shutdowns, people across the United States received stimulus relief checks to offset these devastating effects. However, our most vulnerable communities, immigrant and low income populations, were unjustly left out of said relief. Make the Road was able to provide cash assistance via our Immigrant Relief Fund, ensuring Nevada marginalized members received some of the economic support the government failed to provide.

Creating Community Leaders: Our main priority to implement change in our state lies in putting affected members of our community at the forefront. We are currently working towards creating a stable, working committee of voluntary community members to be our main source for organizing and leading this charge. If you’re interested in joining, please contact our Economic Justice organizer, Abe Lugo at abe.lugo@maketheroadnv.org for more information. 

Raising the Minimum Wage to $15.00: As the minimum wage has remained stagnant, the cost of living and inflation is consistently on the rise. According to the Economic Policy Institute, increasing the minimum wage to $15.00 by 2025 will lift 3.7 million people out of poverty. 

Setting a Foundation for Fair Work Week Legislation: Fair work week laws are policies that aim to create both stable and consistent employee scheduling. Their implementation is to combat unpredictable work hours that cause strain and problems for primarily low wage jobs. Our goal is to ensure our state legislators recognize adequate work hours are essential for our workers, families, businesses, and communities to thrive. 

Closing the Racial Disparity Gap on Unemployment Insurance: Marginalized communities have shown significantly lower levels of applying and utilizing unemployment insurance/benefits due to its increased lack of accessibility. We hope to eliminate these imbalances by connecting with UI services. 

Join us weekly on our virtual Take Action Tuesdays meetings at 6:00pm and on Wednesday Member Meetings at 6:00pm. We give our community resources and information on current events related to housing, health, immigration, economic, housing, environmental, and education justice. We also utilize our meetings to hear from you directly on what assistance and advocacy you would like to see.

To receive reminders of our meetings, upcoming events, and more, join the remind text chain with the following link: https://www.remind.com/join/maketheroa

If you have any questions about Make the Road Nevada’s Economic Justice campaign or need any assistance, please contact our Economic Justice organizer, Abe Lugo at abe.lugo@maketheroadnv.org