wfn.org | Religious leaders seek $1 hike in minimum wage

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 8, 2000        News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202)
546-8722·Washington     10-21-71B{126}

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - United Methodists are among the religious leaders
calling on President Clinton and the members of Congress to raise the
minimum wage in the United States by $1 an hour.

Bishop William Boyd Grove, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist
Council of Bishops, and the Rev. Robert W. Edgar, top staff executive of the
National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., were two of the 18
religious leaders who signed a letter to the administration and Congress
March 7.

"We religious leaders urge you, during this session of Congress, to pass
legislation that will increase the minimum wage by $1 over the next two
years," the religious leaders stated. The letter was signed by leaders of
Jewish, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant organizations.

Besides denominational representatives, the signers included Kathleen S.
Hurty, top staff executive of Church Women United, a group with United
Methodists in its membership, and the Rev. David Beckmann, president of
Bread for the World, a Christian citizens' movement against hunger.

The religious figures made the plea on behalf of the working poor. The
increase would directly benefit an estimated 10.1 million workers, they
said. "Of this group, 69 percent are adults (age 20 and older) and 60
percent are women," the writers noted. They said that the 10.1 million
people are 7.5 percent of the work force.

"This $1 increase would mean an additional $2,000 per year for those working
people and their families who are most in need of additional income:
full-time workers who are paid the minimum wage," the letter continued. 

The additional income would pay for groceries for about six months or rent
for four months - enough to lift a family of two out of poverty, the
religious leaders said. The extra $2,000 a year could pay for 17 months of
tuition and fees at a two-year college, they added.

"Surely in a time of enormous prosperity for so many, in a time when some
among us have so much and some so little, we can do no less," the group
said.

Refuting arguments that a minimum-wage hike increases unemployment, the
letter writers cited Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Those figures "show
that employment increased and unemployment decreased since the last increase
in the minimum wage took effect in 1996 and 1997."

"Further, economists at the Economic Policy Institute studied the 1996-97
minimum wage increases and found overall there was no statistically
significant effect on job opportunities," the letter continued.

The group projected that spillover effects of the increase would raise the
pay of an additional 8.4 million workers.

# # #

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org