act now > minimum wage clergy sign-on letter

Last Updated 11/10/06

An Open Letter to the Illinois General Assembly

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We, the undersigned members of the clergy, call on the Illinois General Assembly to raise the Illinois state minimum wage to at least $7.50 an hour, and include a provision that will annually adjust that wage to the yearly increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). We know that this increase will impact more than half a million families in our state – families who need this increase the most.

Talking about values is no substitute for valuing hard-working men and women across this state who need a higher minimum wage. We call on the General Assembly to pass a $1 per hour minimum wage increase that will go into effect on July 1, 2007 and adjust each January to compensate for inflation. Such cost-of-living adjustments would ensure that the value of the minimum wage will not lose its buying power in the years to come.

We are guided by our moral outrage at the number of people living in poverty in Illinois, which leads us to declare that a job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it. As the Book of Deuteronomy proclaims, “You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers.” (24:14 NRSV)

It has been nearly three years since the last state increase in the minimum wage. Currently, a minimum wage employee – making $6.50 an hour, working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, earns about $13,500 a year – about $3000 below the federal poverty line for a family of three. This situation is unconscionable, as the wealth of our state continues to be built on the backs of the working poor. Working poor families in Illinois are struggling to meet the rising costs of healthcare, gasoline, utilities and housing, and $6.50 an hour is simply not enough.

We need legislation that is seriously aimed at making work pay. As pastors and community leaders we see the hard-working people in our communities of faith falling further and further behind. We know that they will face hardship in the coming months as we anticipate increases in energy costs, healthcare costs, and housing costs.

Families with children or senior dependents face the most egregious hardships. It is a myth that the majority of minimum wage workers are suburban teenagers just trying to earn extra cash. More than 80% of minimum-wage workers in our state are over the age of 20, and of those, more than half are trying to support at least one dependent family member. Many parents must work two full-time jobs just to make ends meet. And many of the teenagers who are working provide very necessary family income.

Work should be valued. Increasing the minimum wage values work and helps raise the floor for all working people in Illinois. We know this legislation will be under consideration during the fall veto session, and we ask that you work with your leaders to pass the bill in this time frame. The families in our communities need this increase now. As faith and community leaders, we urge you to support raising the minimum wage during this veto session and index it to inflation.

Sincerely,

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