Rayan Semery-Palumbo holds America to its promises for working people. He does the research, develops policy, helps build campaigns and coalitions, and makes the case to the public and people in power. He grew up poor and homeless in Arizona. His mom and Joe, the closest person he has to a father, spent decades doing work the country depends on. He was the first in his family to go to college and, because of the people around him, went on to Yale and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar and earned a PhD in Public Policy. He came to his doctoral research wanting to understand what is wrong, and what could be right, in America.
Rayan works with service workers to end subminimum wages and make the minimum wage a living wage. With One Fair Wage, he helps lead the Living Wage For All campaign. At the Economic Security Project, he authored Recovering Wages and Wealth and co-authored Right on Time: How Cash Helps Families Move Through Life’s Transitions with Shafeka Hashash and Maya Tellman. He co-leads Workers First AI with Andy Stern and Tash Diallo, working with rideshare drivers on how robotaxis may change their work, pay, and hours.
Rayan is co-author with Saru Jayaraman of What Has Democracy Done For You Lately? (The New Press, 2026). He writes American Dreams & Nightmares at rayansemerypalumbo.com and lives in New York City.
Speaking, press, and writing: press@rayansemerypalumbo.com
Partnerships and other inquiries: contact@rayansemerypalumbo.com
For more information about Rayan’s background, please read the About page.
For more information about this publication and Rayan’s professional work, please read Start Here.