AUG. 28, 2006
UPDATED JAN. 16, 2007
UPDATED JUNE 4, 2007

POVERTY
Minimum wage + morals = living wage, advocates say

Congress has raised the federal minimum wage for the first time in 10 years. The bill, which President Bush signed into law on May 25, 2007, raises the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years. About 1.7 million workers - or 2.2 percent of the U.S. workforce - currently earn the minimum wage or less, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But the question of what it's fair to pay workers - what it takes to live on; what businesses can afford to pay; and what, morally, is the right thing to do - is still being hotly debated in states and cities across the nation.

Campaigns to raise the minimum wage have already prevailed in 30 states and in roughly 140 cities and counties.

In communities across the country, coalitions of labor officials, religious leaders, students and activists are pushing for higher wages. Religious leaders from many traditions say it's morally unacceptable for someone working full time to earn less than what it takes to provide their families with food and shelter.

But this is a controversial issue - a debate, in part, over free-market forces vs. government restrictions. Some say that raising wages will mean that some of the lowest-paid workers will lose other benefits and possibly even their jobs, because businesses that can't afford the higher costs cut back or even shut down.

In many places, the issue will be debated as much on moral as on economic terms. "This is religion," Monsignor Jerome Martinez of Santa Fe told The New York Times. "The Scripture is full of matters of justice. How can you worship a God that you do not see and then oppress the workers that you do see?"

Why it matters

This is an economic issue with significant grass-roots momentum – and a moral and ethical twist. Much of the energy comes from people of faith, who press these questions: "What is government responsible for? What should businesses be required to do? And what do working citizens deserve?"

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National sources

FOR HIGHER MINIMUM WAGES
• Stephanie Luce is an assistant professor at the Labor Relations and Research Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and is the center's research director. She has conducted numerous studies on the effects of minimum-wage laws in the U.S. and is the author of Fighting for a Living Wage (Cornell University Press, 2004), which found that communities that successfully passed living-wage laws haven't always had as much success in implementing them. Contact 413-545-5907, sluce@econs.umass.edu.
• Paul Sonn is deputy director of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. Sonn has assisted living-wage campaigns in a variety of states and communities; read a June 2005 policy brief he wrote on minimum-wage legislation in cities. Contact 917-556-0680, paul.sonn@nyu.edu.
• Jared Bernstein is director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. He is the author of All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006). Read a June 2006 policy brief he helped write, arguing that Congress' failure to increase the federal minimum wage has eroded the wage's buying power. Contact 202-775-8810, news@epi.org.
• Kristina Wilfore is executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a progressive advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. The center's Web site includes links to state minimum-wage campaigns and includes a list of frequently asked questions, prepared by the Economic Policy Institute, about why a higher minimum wage is needed. Contact 202-223-2373, kwilfore@ballot.org.
• The Living Wage Action Coalition is an alliance of college students and recent graduates who support a campus living-wage movement. The coalition is working to raise wages of college employees, both for student workers and others. Contact Diane Foglizzo, 202-339-9368, diane@livingwageaction.org.
• Responsible Wealth is a Boston-based network of businesspeople, investors and affluent Americans – drawn from among the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans, its Web site says. Responsible Wealth pushes for a higher minimum wage and asks business people to sign a covenant promising to pay their employees at least $8 an hour. Contact co-director Scott Klinger, 617-423-2148 ext. 120, info@responsiblewealth.org.

AGAINST HIGHER MINIMUM WAGES
• Richard S. Toikka, a lawyer and economist, is principal with Metropolitan Legal Services, a law firm in Arlington, Va. He is co-author of a study released by the Employment Policies Institute in Washington, D.C., in May 2005, which concluded that the impact of increased income gained through a living-wage ordinance was offset by the loss of other government assistance. So, the report states, "living wage ordinances do little to actually increase the standard of living for low-income families." Contact 703-351-5017, contact@metro-legal.com.
• John Doyle is managing director of the Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit research group which has funding from the food and beverage industry, and which contends that raising the minimum wage could lead to a loss of jobs. When wages go up, the institute argues, employers respond by hiring fewer people. Contact 202-463-7650, info@epionline.org.
• The National Federation of Independent Business is an advocacy group based in Nashville, Tenn., that represents the interests of small businesses. The federation opposes efforts to raise the minimum wage, saying such measures have ripple effects on the economy and can hurt entry-level workers. Contact Mike Diegel, national media director, 202-554-9000, Michael.diegel@nfib.org.
• The National Restaurant Association opposes legislation considered by Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour over three years. The association contends that relatively few minimum-wage workers are trying to support families and that such legislation would be too expensive for restaurants. Contact Brendan Flanagan, 800-424-5156 ext. 5916, bflanagan@dineout.org.
• Anthony B. Bradley is a research fellow with the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, based in Grand Rapids, Mich. Bradley has written that raising the minimum wage hurts teens and low-skilled minorities. Contact 616-454-3080, abradley@acton.org.

RELIGIOUS GROUPS
In many communities, the debate over minimum-wage and living-wage proposals is being presented as a moral issue – a question of values. Many religious traditions teach the importance of protecting the downtrodden and the poor. Many also speak of honoring the Sabbath as a day of rest – something difficult to do for a person working more than one job to meet the basic expenses of living. And in nearly every state, religious groups are weighing in on this issue – usually in favor of giving people a raise.
• Interfaith Worker Justice, based in Chicago, tries to organize people of faith in the United States to work for better working conditions, benefits and wages for low-income people. Its Web site states that "among the key principles shared by all faiths are the importance of paying workers fairly for their labor and the right of workers to perform their responsibilities with dignity." Contact Kim Bobo, executive director, 773-728-8400, kbobo@iwj.org.
• The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is a grass-roots community organizing group, based in Brooklyn. ACORN has helped organize living-wage campaigns in more than 15 cities and has worked with coalitions trying to raise the minimum wage in states as well. Its Web site tracks the action across the country. Contact Jan Kern, 718-246-7900, natacorncam@acorn.org.
• The Rev. Paul H. Sherry is coordinator of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, based in Cleveland. He also is former president of the United Church of Christ and coordinates the anti-poverty program of the National Council of Churches. The Let Justice Roll campaign – an alliance of more than 70 community and faith-based groups – is asking congregations to host Living Wage Days worship services and other events in October 2006 and on Labor Day. Read a report from October 2005 that Sherry co-authored, which contends that higher minimum wages are good for both workers and business. That report was co-published by the American Friends Service Committee and the National Council of Churches. Contact 216-736-3710, psher973@aol.com.
• The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops favors raising the minimum wage. In a policy statement, updated in June 2005, the bishops contend that a higher minimum wage would benefit women, minorities and the poor the most, and would not lead to joblessness. The bishops also say that "wages must be adequate for workers to provide for themselves and their families in dignity." Contact Thomas Shellabarger, 202-541-3189, tshellabarger@usccb.org.
• Rabbi Michael Namath is program director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. The Religious Action Center is the Washington, D.C., office of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, a joint office of the Union for Reform Judaism (representing 900 congregations with 1.5 million Reform Jews) and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 1,800 rabbis. Read a summary of this group's advocacy on behalf of higher wages. Read Namath's statement from a June 29, 2006, news conference asking the U.S. Senate to raise the minimum wage – in which he says that helping people become self-reliant is the highest form of tzedakah, or charity, in Judaism. Contact 202-387-2800, mnamath@rac.org.
• Imam Mahdi Bray is executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation. The foundation, based in Washington D.C., works to integrate Muslims into American life and is involved in advocacy on public issues. Bray also serves on the board of directors of Interfaith Worker Justice. Contact 202-496-1288, mas4freedom@aol.com.
• The Methodist Federation for Social Action, with offices in Washington, D.C., is an independent group of Methodists concerned with peace and justice issues, including economic justice. Contact executive director Kathryn Johnson, 202-546-8806, kj@mfsaweb.org.
• Roberta Spivak is national representative for economic justice for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization. In June 2006, the committee urged Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, and it's seeking what it calls a "moral budget" for the federal government. The American Friends Service Committee is a co-founder of the Let Justice Roll campaign. Contact 215-241-7037, rspivak@afsc.org.

Background

MINIMUM WAGE
• On May 25, 2007, President Bush signed a bill that raises the minimum wage for the first time in a decade. The new law raises the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years. The minimum wage will rise to $5.85 an hour this year, $6.55 an hour next year and $7.25 an hour the year after that.
• The previous federal minimum wage, set in 1997, was $5.15 an hour. Paid that, a full-time worker would earn $10,712 a year. That income would place a single person less than $1,000 a year above the 2006 poverty line of $9,800, and would put a single parent with two children more than $5,000 below the poverty line. Advocates of change say the federal minimum wage hasn't kept pace with inflation, so a worker's buying power is constantly being eroded.
• Some cities and states have passed their own minimum-wage legislation – which generally apply to all companies doing business in that jurisdiction, although some exempt small businesses with few employees.
• According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 30 states plus the District of Columbia had, as of March 2007, adopted state minimum wages that were above the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. The highest of these was Washington state, at $7.93 an hour.
• And 33 states as well as Puerto Rico had, in 2006, introduced bills (or carried over bills from a previous year) regarding raising the minimum wage further. See a chart that tracks the action state-by-state. Some of those bills would also link the minimum wage to the cost-of-living index.
• The U.S. Department of Labor Web site provides an interactive map with information about minimum-wage laws in each state. It also provides information on the history of the minimum wage, from 1938 to the present.
• In July 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives considered a minimum-wage increase in H.R. 5970 (go to http://thomas.loc.gov and search for HR 5970).
• Read an Aug. 1, 2006, report from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, comparing H.R. 5970 with minimum-wage legislation being considered in fall 2006 on state ballot initiatives.

LIVING WAGE
Some cities and states have passed or are considering "living-wage" legislation – a narrower set of rules, which often apply only to wages paid by contractors doing work with the government. The idea is to pay workers enough so that when they work a 40-hour workweek they have enough money to provide for themselves and their families. The city of Baltimore passed the first modern living-wage legislation in 1994; since then, more than 120 cities and counties have done the same – most setting wages at $9 to $11 an hour – and other local campaigns are under way.
• In 2006, seven states and the District of Columbia had considered living-wage legislation (as of July), according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. See a chart summarizing the action on those bills.
• Read a Feb. 16, 2006, analysis from the Economic Policy Institute of the economic impact of living-wage legislation.

POLLS
• An April 19, 2006, poll from the Pew Research Center found that American adults overwhelmingly favor raising the federal minimum wage by $2, to $7.15 an hour. Of those polled, 83 percent support such a raise, with nearly half (49 percent) holding that position strongly. The support cuts across political lines – with 72 percent of Republicans and 91 percent of Democrats in favor.
• An Arizona Republic poll from January 2006 found that 76 percent of the voters favored a proposal to raise the state minimum wage there to $5.95 an hour initially and to $6.75 an hour by 2008.
• And a Wells Fargo-Gallup Small Business Index poll from May 2006 found surprising support for raising the minimum wage among small businesses. Read an Aug. 21, 2006, story from CNN Money.com describing the findings.

ARTICLES
• Read a May 25, 2007, Washington Post story about Congress voting to raise the minimum wage for the first time in a decade.
• See a Jan. 11, 2007 New York Times story about the effect of a higher minimum wage in a community where workers cross a state line to work there.
• Read an Aug. 3, 2006, story from USA Today on the U.S. Senate's vote not to consider a proposed federal minimum-wage increase to $7.25 an hour.
• On July 29, 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve an increase in the federal minimum wage, the first proposed increase in a decade. Listen to an NPR story from July 29, 2006.
• Read a July 28, 2006, Chicago Sun-Times story about a new ordinance in Chicago requiring big-box retailers to pay employees a "living wage" of at least $10 an hour and to provide $3 an hour in benefits by 2010. Some expect similar campaigns to be launched in other cities.
• Read a May 10, 2006, USA Today story summarizing campaigns in states to raise the minimum wage.
• Read a May 1, 2006, Wall Street Journal story analyzing the politics of minimum-wage campaigns – and the effort by some to portray it as an issue of moral values.
• Listen to an April 10, 2006, story from NPR's Morning Edition on the impact on workers of the living-wage law that Los Angeles passed in 1997.
• Read an April 1, 2006, viewpoint article posted on the Americancityandcounty.com Web site.
• Read a Jan. 15, 2006, New York Times Magazine story titled "What Is a Living Wage?"
• Read a Dec. 25, 2005, Boston Globe story on Democrats' efforts to raise the minimum wage in states across the country.
• Read a June 3, 2005, Commonweal article about the successful campaign in Florida to raise the minimum wage, which drew support from both conservatives and liberals.
• Read a Dec. 6, 2004, story from The Nation about why the living-wage debate is really a moral issue.