Let Justice Roll

Guest Opinion: Standing up for workers pays off for Montana

By Steve Bullock
Billings Gazette, 9/3/07

This Labor Day has taken on special meaning for me. Last year I had the privilege of working as the director of Raise Montana, a coalition of groups that gathered the signatures and worked for passage of a ballot issue to increase Montana's minimum wage. The $1-an-hour raise, supported by 73 percent of Montana voters, went into effect this January, helping more than 20,000 Montana workers make ends meet.

The minimum wage increase gives us all reason to celebrate this Labor Day.

When he helped organize the first Labor Day parade in 1884, Peter J. McGuire, a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor described the goal of the day as celebrating those who "have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

What great words, words from 123 years ago that in their simplicity and clarity provide us with a reminder about what Labor Day is all about. It is about the celebration of the labor that made and makes America great. It is about the movement that organized workers and elevated American life. And it is about remembering our responsibility to each other.

Sixty-five years later, on Dec. 10, 1948, in the wake of the world's greatest conflict, the nations of the world came together, wrote and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Again, in plain language, the world spoke clearly about the value of work saying, "Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity."

Last year, Montanans also spoke clearly about the value of work and the dignity of our neighbors. And this year, the first Labor Day since the passage of the initiative to increase the minimum wage, we get the chance to look back and see if it has made a difference.

The answer is yes.

Since the $1-an-hour increase went into effect, wages have gone up, job growth has been strong and Montana's economy is on solid ground.

Some argued that giving minimum and low-wage workers a raise would stifle the economy and cause unemployment to rise. Instead, the facts demonstrate that doing right by workers is the right thing to do for us all.

After six months with a new minimum wage, unemployment in Montana has gone down by nearly 15 percent from a year ago, giving Montana one of the lowest jobless rates in the nation. Meanwhile, as one would predict when wages go up for 6 percent of workers, Montana has found itself in unusual territory, ranking in the top 10 in the nation in both wage and income growth. For the economy as a whole, businesses continue to grow, tax revenues are up and Montana taxpayers will directly benefit this year in the form of a $400 tax rebate.

Steve Bullock, who served as the director of Raise Montana, is a lawyer in private practice in Helena and a Democratic candidate for attorney general.