‘I have coworkers . . . barely making it’: A Kroger employee on the recent shareholder vote over wages

Kroger shareholders just voted against a proposal to institute a living wage. One worker shares how a pay increase could change the lives of her colleagues.

During Kroger’s annual meeting last week, shareholders voted against a proposal that could have secured higher wages for hundreds of thousands of workers employed by the grocery giant. The majority of shareholders—about 83%—ultimately rejected the proposal, which was brought by a trio of activist investors and urged the company to pay workers a living wage that would provide the “minimum earnings necessary to meet a family’s basic needs.”