Minimum wage, ethical questions

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The federal minimum wage takes another jump this month, in what proponents say is a step toward economic justice for society’s most vulnerable workers. But with unemployment nearing 10 percent and teen joblessness twice as high, others argue that a delay would have been wiser — and more righteous than putting additional jobs at risk.

Minimum wageThe 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 — continues to be a hot debate, and one that’s not limited to the federal stage. Coalitions of labor officials, religious leaders, students and activists are pushing for higher wages in communities and on campuses across the country, particularly for low-wage jobs.

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 the lowest-paid workers could lose other benefits and possibly even their jobs, because businesses that can’t afford the higher costs will cut back or even shut down.

In many places, the issue will be argued as much on moral as on economic terms. ReligionLink provides resources for exploring all aspects of the debate.

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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FOR HIGHER MINIMUM WAGES

  • Jared Bernstein is Vice President Joe Biden’s chief economist and economic policy adviser. Before taking that post, Bernstein was 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. Contact 202-775-8810, news@epi.org.
  • The Campus Living Wage Project collects information from students, organizers and researchers about campus living wage campaigns. It began in 2002 with Harvard University’s living-wage campaign. Contact Adam Stone, adamrstone@gmail.com.
  • Harry J. Holzer is a professor of public policy at Georgetown University, senior fellow at the Urban Institute and nonresident senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. He wrote the December 2008 Brookings report “Living Wage Laws: How Much Do (Can) They Matter?” Contact 202-687-1458, hjh4@georgetown.edu.
  • The Living Wage Resource Center is a project of ACORN, a national grassroots community organization. It lists current city and county living-wage campaigns and counts 140 cities and counties that have passed living-wage legislation. Contact Jen Kern, 202-547-2500, natacorncam@acorn.org.
  • 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, 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.
  • 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.
  • Paul Sonn is legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project. He has worked at designing and implementing living-wage policies in low-wage industries for more than a decade. He founded and co-directed the Economic Justice Project at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, which merged with NELP in 2008. Contact 212-285-3025 ext. 351, psonn@nelp.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. Contact 202-223-2373, kwilfore@ballot.org.

AGAINST HIGHER MINIMUM WAGES

  • 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.
  • 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 opposed the minimum-wage increases approved two years ago. The association contended 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.
  • 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.

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.

  • Roberta Spivak is national representative for economic justice for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that advocates for a higher minimum wage. The American Friends Service Committee is a co-founder of the Let Justice Roll campaign. Contact 215-241-7037, rspivak@afsc.org.
  • Interfaith Worker Justice, based in Chicago, tries to organize people of faith in the United States to push 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.
  • Stephen Copley is chair of the board of the Let Justice Roll Campaign, a coalition of 90 faith, community, labor and business organizations working to raise the minimum wage. It sponsors annual “living wage” days, which this year fell on Jan. 10-11, 2009. Contact 501-626-9220, scopley@letjusticeroll.org.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops favors raising the minimum wage. In a policy statement, updated in February 2006, 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.

Background

MINIMUM WAGE

On May 25, 2007, President George W. Bush signed a bill that raised the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade. The new law called for a three-tiered increase, with the floor rising from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 in 2007; to $6.55 in 2008; and to $7.25 an hour on July 24, 2009.

At the old minimum, which had stood since 1997, a full-time worker earned $10,712 a year. That income placed a single person less than $1,000 above the 2006 poverty line of $9,800, and 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 measures — which generally apply to all companies doing business in that jurisdiction, although some exempt small businesses with few employees.

See a chart that tracks minimum-wage legislation 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. As of Jan. 1, 2009, 12 states, along with the District of Columbia, had set minimum wages higher than $7.25 (see aggregate chart at bottom of page). The department also provides information on the history of the minimum wage, from 1938 to the present.

About 1.7 million workers — just 2.2 percent of the U.S. hourly paid workforce — earned the minimum wage or less in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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, roughly140 cities and counties have done the same — most setting wages at $9 to $11 an hour — and other local campaigns are under way.

The Living Wage Resource Center is a project of ACORN, a national grassroots community organization. It lists current city and county living-wage campaigns and those that have passed living-wage legislation.

See a Dec. 10, 2008, Brookings Institution report, “Living Wage Laws: How Much Do (Can) They Matter?”

In April 2007, Maryland became the first state to mandate a living wage for employees of state contractors. Companies that win state contracts worth $100,000 have to pay workers on those contracts enough for a person to support a family above the federal poverty level. See an April 10, 2007, Baltimore Daily Record article posted by findarticles.com.

Read a Feb. 16, 2006, analysis from the Economic Policy Institute of the economic impact of living-wage legislation.

POLLS

Pollingreport.com posts several opinion polls on the minimum wage. Search the site to find them.

ARTICLES

Regional sources

IN THE NORTHEAST

  • Kenneth A. Couch is an associate professor of economics at the University of Connecticut. He has done research showing that increasing the minimum wage reduces the employment of some of the most vulnerable categories of workers, including teenagers and adults who lack a high school degree. Contact 860-486-4570, Kenneth.couch@uconn.edu.
  • Richard B. Freeman is the Herbert S. Ascherman professor of economics at Harvard University in Cambridge. He also directs the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Freeman has written that research shows that increasing the minimum wages has little or no effect on the number of jobs available. Contact through Jennifer Amadeo-Holl, 617-588-0303, freeman@nber.org.
  • Robert Pollin is a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and co-director of the university’s Political Economy Research Institute. He is co-author of The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy. Read a June 2003 paper he wrote evaluating the impact of living-wage policies in a number of U.S. cities. Contact 413-577-0819, pollin@econs.umass.edu.

IN THE EAST

IN THE SOUTHEAST

  • Peter Arcidiacono is an assistant professor of economics at Duke University in Durham, N.C. Arcidiacono is the co-author of a 2004 study that concluded that increasing the minimum wage would decrease a worker’s chances of finding employment. Contact 919-660-1816, psarcidi@duke.edu.
  • Jason Jenkins is a program associate for the North Carolina Council of Churches. Jenkins worked with the Let Justice Roll campaign to increase the minimum wage in North Carolina. That legislation, which the Legislature approved 37-12, increases the state minimum wage by a dollar, to $6.15 per hour, beginning in January 2007. Contact 919-828-6501, jjenkins@nccouncilofchurches.org.
  • Jeanette Smith is executive director of South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice. This coalition of clergy and lay leaders has worked to raise the minimum wage and to tie it to the rate of inflation. Contact 786-264-1708, jeanettesmith@sfiwj.org.

IN THE SOUTH

  • William P. Quigley is a law professor and director of the Law Clinic and the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University in New Orleans. He is the author of Ending Poverty as We Know It: Guaranteeing a Right to a Job at a Living Wage. Contact 504-861-5591, Quigley@loyno.edu.
  • C. Melissa Snarr is an assistant professor of ethics and society at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville. She has done research on the role religion plays in the living-wage movement. Contact 615-343-0667, Melissa.snarr@vanderbilt.edu.
  • Aaron Yelowitz is an associate professor of economics at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. He has written about unintended consequences of living-wage legislation – saying, for example, that paying higher wages can lead to the loss of other benefits for low-income families – and testified as an expert witness in 2004 regarding living-wage legislation in Santa Fe. Contact 859-257-7634, aaron@uky.edu.

IN THE MIDWEST

IN THE SOUTHWEST

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST

  • David Card is a professor of economics in the Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California at Berkeley. He and a colleague, Alan B. Krueger, did research on the impact of an increase in the minimum wage in New Jersey on fast-food restaurants. They found that a small increase in the minimum wage did not adversely affect employment levels. Contact 510-642-5222, card@econ.berkeley.edu.
  • Rabbi Jonathan Klein is executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, an interfaith group from the Los Angeles area that advocates on behalf of the working poor. Contact 213-481-3740 ext. 101, jklein@cluela.org.
  • David Neumark is a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California and an economics professor at the University of California, Irvine. Neumark co-authored a July 2005 analysis called “A Decade of Living Wages: What Have We Learned?” That report concludes that living-wage laws have increased salaries of the lowest-wage earners, but there have been some adverse effects too, and more policy changes are needed to help the most disadvantaged. Contact 415-291-4476, dneumark@uci.edu.
  • The Rev. Vernon Wright, a United Church of Christ minister who is pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church in Helena, Mont., is a member of the Progressive Clergy Alliance. Contact 406-442-9883.




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