In 2016, roughly 58% of Americans voted in the presidential election. That statistic doesn’t tell the entire story because around the country those rates vary considerably, particularly in urban areas where wait times are, by Republican-design, much longer, the results of decades of intentional voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement.
This year, Election Day falls on Tuesday, November 3, and some companies are doing what the federal government has failed to do: make Election Day a paid company holiday. A business-led movement called Time To Vote, has reportedly gotten commitments from more than 600 companies to make sure that their employees have time allotted to allow them to vote, with many notable corporate leaders like Best Buy, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Walmart, REI Co-op, Patagonia, Warby Parker, and others.
The most notable commitment from the Time to Vote pledge is employees aren’t just given the time to vote, something that is already required by law, but they won’t lose money by missing a few hours or even a full day’s pay. This is an essential ingredient for millions of Americans, as being allowed and able to go vote is much different than being able to afford to vote.
As the New York Time points out, people of color, and more specifically Black Americans are egregiously overrepresented when it comes to demographics most affected by losing hours of wages in order to vote. According to 2018 census data, median household income of Black families with a new child was $36,300, for Hispanic families it was $48,400, for Native American and Alaskan Native families it was $41,000. For white families that income hovered around $80,000.
The income inequality in our country crosses racial lines, but it also manifests the systemic white supremacy in our country. The fallout, or depending on your belief design, of this inequality is to take political power away from the majority of Americans by dividing people up by race. One of the ways this happens is telling people that they have options when reality dictates that they do not. Faced with keeping the lights on or being able to pay for daycare, it’s not hard to understand why so many opt out of standing in line for hours on end to vote.
Missing a day’s pay is just one more form of voter disenfranchisement and voter suppression. Getting America’s corporate leaders to offer paid leave for Election Day is a good start, but millions shouldn’t have to rely on the benevolence of corporate leadership. If Democrats make a run this November and somehow keep control of the House and take the Senate, Democrats should send a bill to President Biden making Election Day a national holiday for all.
