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www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09017<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09017

>Faith leaders call for raising minimum wage

Living Wage events link MLK dream to end poverty wages

>by Jerry L. Van Marter
>Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE ―  With the U.S. economic crisis deepening and
unemployment soaring, a group of 11 denominational and
religious organization leaders are among the inaugural
signers of a call to raise the federal minimum wage to $10
in 2010.

The signers include the Rev. Gradye Parsons, General
Assembly stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Nearly 400 faith leaders from all 50 states have already
endorsed "$10 in 2010," a campaign led by Let Justice Roll,
and more are signing on each day.

Let Justice Roll, a national coalition of faith, community,
labor and business organizations, will hold Living Wage
events this weekend and on the Martin Luther King holiday
weekend as part of the "$10 in 2010" campaign and in
support of state and local living wage campaigns.

"Well before the recession, growing numbers of employed men
and women sought help at food banks and homeless shelters
because they could not live on poverty wages," said Rev.
Steve Copley, chair of Let Justice Roll.

According to economists, when the federal minimum wage
increased to $6.55 an hour last July, it still left workers
with less buying power than they had in 1997 ― the start of
the longest period without a raise since the minimum wage
was enacted in1938.

"Our economy wouldn't be in such a mess if wages had not
fallen so far behind the cost of living and income
inequality had not grown to levels last seen on the eve of
the Great Depression," said Holly Sklar, senior policy
adviser for Let Justice Roll and co-author of A Just
Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future.
"As we are seeing so painfully, an economy fueled by rising
debt rather than rising wages is a house of cards," she
added.

U.S. Department of Labor analysts say it would take about
$10 to match the buying power of the 1968 minimum wage.

"It is immoral that the minimum wage is worth less now than
it was in 1968, the year Dr. Martin Luther King was killed
while fighting for living wages for sanitation workers,"
Copley said. "It's also bad for the economy. Minimum wage
dollars go right back to local business through spending on
food, healthcare and other necessities."

Most of the 27 states with minimum wages higher than the
federal level have unemployment rates that are lower than
the federal level, Let Justice Roll says.

Congregations and organizations in states such as
Tennessee, Georgia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Illinois,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Colorado
will hold living wage services and events this month. For
example:

-In Nashville, TN, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Unitarian
services will be part of a campaign for a citywide living
wage ordinance, and the interfaith coalition will march in
the annual Martin Luther King Day parade with signs that
say "Living Wage Was Part of His Dream" and "Let Justice
Roll."

-In Nashua, NH, the president of the Unitarian
Universalist Association, the Rev. William G. Sinkford,
will preach at a living wage service.

In addition to the "$10 in 2010" campaign, Let Justice Roll
is currently organizing to raise state and local minimum
wages in Georgia, Kansas, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma and
Tennessee.

A recent campaign in Kansas City, KS successfully doubled
that city's lowest in the U.S. minimum wage of $2.645 an
hour.

Most of the ten occupations projected by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics to have the largest employment growth
during 2006-2016 ― such as retail salespersons, fast food
workers, home health aides and janitors ― have
disproportionate numbers of minimum wage workers.

"A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it,
said Sklar. "The minimum wage sets the wage floor, and we
cannot build a strong economy on downwardly mobile wages
and rising poverty, inequality and insecurity. As President
Roosevelt understood, we have to raise the floor to lift
the economy."

In addition to Pasrons, Copley and Sinkford, inaugural
signers of the "$10 in 2010" call are the the Rev. Michael
Kinnamon, general secretary, National Council of Churches
USA;  the Rev. Sharon Watkins, general minister and
president, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in US &
Canada; the Rev. John H. Thomas, general minister and
president, United Church of Christ; Rabbi David Saperstein,
director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Mary
Ellen McNish, general secretary, American Friends Service
Committee; Sister Simone Campbell, executive director,
NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; James
Winkler, general secretary, United Methodist General Board
of Church & Society; the Rev. Alexander Sharp, executive
director, Protestants for the Common Good;  and the Rev.
Kim Bobo, executive director, Interfaith Worker Justice.

More information about "$10 in 2010" is available on the
Let Justice Roll Web site.

>Information for this story furnished by Betsy
>Leonder-Wright of Let Justice Roll.

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