FAITH
AND COMMUNITY LEADERS URGE CONGRESS TO GIVE WORKERS
A RAISE: A $7.25 MINIMUM WAGE IS THE LEAST WE
CAN DO
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Leslie Tune at (202) 481-6927, Ltune@ncccusa.org
Washington,
D.C., June 20, 2006 -- The Let Justice Roll
Living Wage Campaign, a fast-growing program of
more than 70 faith and community groups, is strongly
urging members of Congress to value workers and
their families by giving them a much needed raise.
This
week, Senators can show they care about the nation's
poorest workers by supporting the Kennedy Amendment
to the Department of Defense appropriations bill,
which would increase the federal minimum wage
to $7.25 an hour from the current $5.15 an hour.
The
Let Justice Roll Campaign's message is clear:
a raise to $7.25 an hour is the least we can do
now for minimum wage workers who have gone without
a raise for nine long years. Tens of thousands
of Let Justice Roll supporters are calling and
writing their elected officials to urge them to
vote for this amendment.
Since
the last federal minimum wage increase was passed
nearly a decade ago, members of Congress have
increased their own salary nine times, including
just last week when they agreed to another increase
of $3,300 to their annual salaries. While Congress
will soon make close to $170,000 a year, hardworking
full-time minimum wage workers make just $10,700
annually. This unconscionable gap leaves minimum
wage workers more than $5,000 below
the already inadequate poverty line for a family
of three.
"Every
day without a minimum wage raise means another
day choosing between rent and health care, putting
food in the refrigerator or gas in the car,"
said Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, coordinator of the
Let Justice Roll Campaign.
"We've
heard Congress talk a lot about values. The minimum
wage is a bedrock moral value," said Sherry.
"It's immoral that workers who care for children,
the ill and the elderly struggle to care for their
own families. It's immoral that the minimum wage
keeps people in poverty instead of out of poverty.
A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep
you in it," he said.
Today's
minimum wage is lower than the minimum wage of
1950, which would be $6.30 in 2006 dollars. It
would take $9.31 today to match the buying power
of the minimum wage of 1968.
According
to Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the
National Council of Churches USA, one of the sponsors
of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign,
"Surely, Congress can support a raise in
the minimum wage to $7.25 as called for in legislation
being debated this week, especially since they
just voted to give themselves a raise last week."
"Congress
wants us to believe it needs a 'cost of living
adjustment' of more than $3,000 while minimum
wage workers struggle to get by on the same full-time
minimum wage salary of $10,712 for the past nine
years. It's morally outrageous and reprehensible
for Congress to increase their salary and not
that of millions of the hardworking American citizens
who they are supposed to represent," said
Edgar.
Momentum
to raise the minimum wage on the state and local
level has been steadily increasing for the past
several years, as faith and community groups work
together to mobilize their grassroots constituencies
on this issue. Federal legislation, however, has
been stagnant.
In
its plea to Congress, members of the Let Justice
Roll Living Wage Campaign have cited the Golden
Rule: "Do to others as you would have them
do to you." Yet they contend that our elected
officials have not adhered to this rule.
"Violating
the Golden Rule, Congress has already taken eight
pay raises since 1997, bringing their pay to $165,200,
while giving none to minimum wage workers who
make just $10,712 a year. Violating the Golden
Rule, Congress is on track for its ninth raise
effective January 1, 2007 to $168,500," said
Sherry.
A
recently released report entitled A
Just Minimum Wage: Good For Workers, Business
and Our Future, by Holly Sklar
and the Rev. Paul Sherry, counters all the arguments
against raising the minimum wage and offers vital
new insight into why the minimum wage is so important.
The report shows that raising the minimum wage
is an economic imperative for the enduring strength
of our workforce, businesses, communities and
economy, as well as a moral imperative for the
very soul of our nation. A Just Minimum Wage was
produced by the American Friends Service Committee
and the National Council of Churches USA in support
of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign.
Copies are available in .pdf format at www.letjusticeroll.org and
in hard copy by contacting Leslie Tune at the
National Council of Churches USA at (202) 481-6927
or via email at Ltune@ncccusa.org.
The
Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign works to
raise the minimum wage at the federal level and
in states such as Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky,
Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina,
Ohio and Pennsylvania, and played a leading role
in recent state minimum wage increases in Arkansas,
Michigan and West Virginia.
Additional
information about the Let Justice Roll Living
Wage Campaign can be found online at www.letjusticeroll.org.
EDITOR'S
NOTE: For hard copies of A Just Minimum Wage or
to arrange interviews with Rev. Sherry, Rev. Edgar,
Holly Sklar or Let Justice Roll national and state
organizers, please contact Leslie Tune at (202)
481-6927 or via email at Ltune@ncccusa.org.
Also note that our website www.letjusticeroll.org offers
reporters, editors and producers a uniquely comprehensive
and up-to-date resource with information about
the minimum wage and campaigns to raise it at
the state and federal level.
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