Minimum Wage Raise Too Little, Too Late ?
by TedA nonpartisan coalition of more than 90 faith, community, labor and business organizations has launched an ambitious “$10 in 2010″ campaign to raise the federal minimum wage within two years.
The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign announced the crusade with support from various denominations, including American Baptist Churches USA, the Episcopal Church, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Christian social justice group Sojourners.
The July 24 minimum wage raise is so little, so late that workers will still make less than they did in 1997, adjusting for the increased cost of living, and way less than in 1968. The new $6.55 minimum wage is lower than the 1997 minimum wage, which is worth $6.88 in 2008 dollars, and way lower than the inflation-adjusted $9.86 minimum wage of 1968. For full-time workers that translates into $20,509 a year at the 1968 rate, compared with just $13,624 at the hourly rate of $6.55.
$10 in 2010 will bring the minimum wage closer to the value it had in 1968, a year when the unemployment rate was a low 3.6 percent. It will bring the minimum wage closer to the “minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency and general well-being of workers” promised by the Fair Labor Standards Act establishing the minimum wage 70 years ago.
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