Saving Democracy Means Ending Extreme Inequality

Labor organizer Saru Jayaraman makes a clarion call to action: support workers across the United States who are saying there’s always been an affordability crisis and are asking politicians what has democracy done for me lately? Addressing inequality worse than the infamous Gilded Age requires ensuring living wages for all. 

Featuring 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 is author of: Behind the Kitchen Door; Forked: A New Standard for American Dining; and One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America.

Resources

Take This Job and Shove It: The Great Resignation or The Great Revolt?⁠ | Bioneers Podcast

⁠Saru Jayaraman – What has Democracy Done For Me Lately? Engaging Working People in the Fight to Save Democracy⁠ | Bioneers 2026 Keynote

⁠Living Wage for All⁠

Executive Producer & Writer: Kenny Ausubel

Senior Producer and Station Relations: Stephanie Welch

Associate Producer & Program Engineer: Emily Harris

Host & Consulting Producer: Neil Harvey

Graphics: Megan Howe

This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the ⁠radio and podcast homepage⁠ to learn more.