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Around the US, a movement to make the minimum wage a living wage is growing fast. The Let Justice Roll Campaign, an umbrella network of over 60 state and national groups, is playing a key role in efforts to raise the minimum wage at both the state and federal levels.
The federal minimum has declined in value dramatically since it was raised to $5.15 in 1997. In terms of real purchasing power, the minimum wage is lower than it has been in nearly 50 years. It would have to be raised to $9 an hour to reach the value it had in 1968. Full-time minimum wage workers earn $10,712 per year '” $5000 less than the official poverty line for a family of three. The cost of family health insurance now exceeds the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage worker.
Let Justice Roll supports proposed legislation in Congress which would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour by 2008. Given the hostility of the current leadership in Congress to working people, state campaigns have become a key strategy both to help workers immediately and to add pressure for change at the national level.
A valuable resource in the campaign is the report A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future by Holly Sklar and the Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry. The report, along with news and other re-sources, is available on the web at www.letjusticeroll.org.
In West Virginia, we worked to pass a bill to raise the state minimum in three stages to $7.25 by June 2008. The WV Economic Justice Project was a key player in the statewide campaign and New Empower-ment for Women Plus helped keep the bill alive in the state senate, where it faced significant challenges. Other major supporters were the AFL-CIO, the WV Council of Churches, WV Citizen Action Group, the WV chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Service Employees International Union and child advocacy organizations such as Prevent Child Abuse WV.