Let Justice Roll

Letters to the Editor Sampler

Braintree Forum (MA)
3/29/06
Justice Sunday

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, based in Cambridge, is one of the human rights community's most effective agents. Its work in the area of economic justice will be featured in the annual "Justice Sunday" service at All Souls Church on Sunday, March 26, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Together with other Unitarian Universalist congregations throughout the country, we will be focusing on ways to advance the right of all workers to earn a living wage with dignity.

The UUSC is among the 50-plus faith-based and community organizations that make up the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, an interfaith and community initiative to raise the minimum wage nationally and in selected states. Speaking at Quincy's Church of the Presidents on Martin Luther King Day, Senator Edward Kennedy pointed out that the Federal minimum wage has remained at $5.15 per hour since 1997. In that time, members of Congress have approved seven pay raises for themselves, totaling $30,000.Yet, the annual salary of a full-time worker earning the Federal minimum wage is a paltry $10,700 -- $5,000 below the official poverty line for a family of three. Along with Representative Miller, Senator Kennedy has introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005, which would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 in three steps by 2007, benefiting 15.5 million workers.

Members of the Social Action/Environmental Committee at All Souls Church will lead the service. Resources about the Living Wage Campaign and other economic justice initiatives will be available for review during a coffee hour immediately after the service. The public is invited. The church is located at 196 Elm St. Childcare and religious education is offered. For more information, call All Souls Church at www.allsoulsbraintree.org or call 781-843-1388.

Mary Mitchell

Copyright (c) 2006 Braintree Forum
http://www2.townonline.com/braintree/opinion/view.bg?articleid=460324

The Columbus Dispatch
3/12/06

Move to raise minimum wage isn't enough

Gov. Bob Taft is set to sign into law a measure passed last week by the
General Assembly that raises Ohio's minimum wage to the federal level of $5.15.The measure is Senate Bill 7.

The federal minimum wage has not been increased since September 1997. Statehouse Republicans are celebrating this minimum increase; however, the move is a small, disingenuous step that is not good enough.

Since 1995, I have championed raising the minimum wage to improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of workers and their families.

Currently, there is a minimum-wage initiative that is expected to be on the
November ballot that would truly provide the real increase that workers deserve and need. The ballot initiative would not only increase Ohio's minimum wage to $6.85 but also allows for required inflationary increases.

Voters in many other states have embraced similar initiatives because of the failure of Congress to increase the federal minimum wage for almost 10 years.

Senate Bill 7 does not take the steam out of this initiative; rather, it only
emboldens members of the coalition to provide the genuine increase that is needed for workers in Ohio.

In no way should we be celebrating this increase to $5.15 an hour. It took
lawmakers in Columbus nine years to come up to the minimum. To earn $5.15 an hour means to bring home only $10,700 annually to feed, clothe and provide shelter for a family.

Had Ohio's minimum wage kept pace with inflation, it would be closer to $7.55 today, according to Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit policy-research
organization.

A true minimum-wage increase benefits all of Ohio by stabilizing families and the work force and minimizing turnover in the workplace.

Keep in mind, the minimum-wage workers in this state are those who make our beds, serve us our food and wait on us in retail stores. They and the value of their work are worth more than $5.15, and that is how I believe voters will respond in November.

SEN. C.J. PRENTISS, Ohio Senate Democratic leader, Board member, Policy Matters Ohio Cleveland

Copyright (c) The Columbus Dispatch

Morning Sentinel (ME)
3/12/06

Higher minimum wage good for many Mainers

Rep. Bob Nutting's comments of Feb. 26 criticized your support of the minimum-wage proposal. I agree with your stand on it.

The idea of six out of 10,000 workers is not correct. Why? If approximately 1.3 million Maine residents were workers, there would only be 780 earning the minimum. (1.3 million divided by 10,000 equals 130, multiplied by 6 equals 780.) The accepted number derived by studies is closer to 35,000 Mainers.

Nutting has unfounded fears. The added 35,000 with more to spend could mean the difference between success or failure for a small business. It could mean diminished financial stress for young families and women, who outnumber men earning the minimum.

Not all seniors are on fixed incomes. Social Security has a threshold at which an increase kicks in. Yes, adjustments are slow in coming.

Any incentive to modify the luxury of eating out would have a positive effect because it is less costly to prepare meals at home. Cash saved can then be spent locally on basic needs such as clothing, shelter, food, fuel and gasoline.

The legislation does not ask for a doubling of wages. It asks for 50 cents over a two-year period. This measure is conservative.

There is extensive research on the various arguments posted on the AFL-CIO Web site, for anyone wanting depth. Also, look at the "Let Justice Roll" campaign Web site, www.letjusticeroll.org. For those without access to the Internet, please read the best- seller "Nickel & Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich, copyright 2001.

Paul O. Sylvain
Skowhegan

Copyright (c) Morning Sentinel

Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, SD)
2/16/06

Minimum wage

I hope that Gov. Mike Rounds' recommendation to raise minimum wage to $6 an hour will be reintroduced.

We celebrated Martin Luther King Day last month and recently mourned the death of his widow, Coretta Scott King, who also worked tirelessly for those who are marginalized, in poverty and suffering discrimination.

In 1966, Martin Luther King called for Congress to boost the minimum wage, saying, "We know of no more crucial civil rights issue facing Congress (and state legislators) than the need to increase ... minimum wage and extend its coverage. A living wage should be the right of all working Americans."

Of course, $6 an hour ($12,000 a year) is not a living wage, and $10 an hour ($20,000 a year) just barely will allow one person to sustain him/herself. He/she must deduct sales tax on food, heat and other necessities. King never dreamed that in 2006, the value of minimum wage would be lower than it was in the 1960s.

In the words of Holly Sklar, "We need a wage ethic to go with our work ethic."

Kathleen M. Kersey
Sioux Falls

Copyright (c) Argus Leader

The Intelligencer (Doylestown, PA)
1/18/06

All deserve a living wage

To the Editor:

What an appropriate commentary Lou Sessinger wrote for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. When King was cut down on April 4, 1968, he and his associates were working on a multiracial poor people's campaign, declaring that there should be a decent job and income for every American. Today, at the heart of the antipoverty movement in the United States is the issue of a living wage.

Millions of hard-working people in our country who are employed full-time at minimum wage are not able to provide for their families in a way that allows them to live in dignity. The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 an hour since September 1997. This translates to less than $11,000 a year. A single parent with one child would need to work more than two full-time, minimum-wage jobs to make ends meet, especially in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

It is time for a just minimum wage, at least the $7.25 an hour proposed by the campaign, Let Justice Roll: Faith and Community Voices Against Poverty. The teenagers of Zion Mennonite Church in Souderton are right on the mark in pointing out that there is poverty here amid so much abundance. And that fact, fittingly, does not reflect their moral values.

Larry Miller
New Britain

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