Paychecks for U.S. workers are not keeping up with inflation. The average hourly pay was $8.77 last month. That level of pay for workers who aren’t on a government payroll and aren’t supervisors is down from $8.85 four years ago, according to inflation-adjusted data from the U.S. Department of Labor. With Labor Day approaching, Sen. Bernie Sanders has co-sponsored legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.  Sanders also has spoken out in support of fast-food workers who have staged one-day walkouts throughout the country to bring attention to what he called the “starvation wages” and “economic injustice.”

Watch the Senate floor speech »