Raise the Minimum Wage!

An increase in minimum wage would raise low-wage Illinois workers and their families out of poverty. Since the federal minimum wage was last increased in 1996-97, employment in Illinois is up and unemployment is down. In fact, Illinois has experienced great economic growth. Since September 1996, 349,500 new jobs have been created.

Our elected leaders should act as quickly as possible to pass a long deserved $1.50 increase in the minimum wage without excessive tax breaks for businesses and without undermining the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

At a time of unprecedented prosperity–the longest period of economic growth in the nation's history and the lowest unemployment rate in three decades, a fair increase is long overdue. Look at the facts. A worker earning the minimum wage must work 82 hours per week in order to afford a one bedroom. A full-time minimum wage worker does not even earn enough to maintain a two-person family above the poverty threshold. The current minimum wage also fails to provide enough income to enable minimum wage workers to afford adequate housing in any area of this country.

Every day the minimum wage is not increased, it continues to lose value and hard working families fall farther and farther behind.

Currently in Congress, Senator Edward Kennedy from Massachusetts has introduced a bill in the Senate (Senate Bill #964) that would add $1.50 to the minimum wage for our country's lowest paid workers.

Everyone seems to agree that an increase is needed but elected leaders disagree over how much and over what period of time. The debate is between $1 increase over three years and $1.50 over two years. Senator Peter Fitzgerald is one of many senators who have not made up his mind. The nation and business can afford the increase and workers deserve the increase.

We can't afford continued high rates of poverty for low-wage workers. Everyone agrees something must be done to increase the minimum wage, but as it now stands, the bill is viewed as a Christmas tree for those who want tax breaks for businesses and want to undermine the FLSA.

The highest preferred "ornaments" for the minimum wage bill are the multitudes of tax breaks for businesses that claim they did not get their fair share in the President's tax reform bill and are seeking to get this as part of the minimum wage decisions. Although some tax breaks may be small businesses, the majority of the breaks will have little or nothing to do with the minimum wage increase. Decorating the tree with these tax breaks is wasteful to tax payers and undermines the quick passing of the minimum wage increase.

The other "attachments" to the minimum wage bill are changes to the FLSA that would exempt additional groups of workers from overtime pay. We need more workers covered by overtime provisions, not fewer.

Many national religious leaders have weighed in on this issue and expressed their deep interest in creating a world of economic and social justice. All religions believe in justice. Religious leaders from almost every religious sector in America, Catholics, Methodist, Jewish, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Mennonites and many others, released a letter in June calling for the $1.50 increase over two years. The letter asks the "President and members of Congress, to act immediately to raise the wages of hard-working people who serve the food we eat, clean the buildings in which we work, care for the children and elderly we love. Justice and compassion for [these workers] demand no less." Indeed it is the moral obligation of these leaders to invest in America's hard working families.

In summary, the Kennedy bill provides a good first step for creating a workplace based on fairness for our families and our communities. Now is the time to invest in these families.

Kim Bobo, Executive Director, IWJ