For Immediate Release
Friday, March 29, 1996
Five Years After Last Minimum Wage Increase AFSCME President Urges Lawmakers to Enact 'Living Wage'
Gerald W. McEntee, president of the 1.3-million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, took the debate on the minimum wage a step further today, by urging lawmakers to not only increase the minimum wage, but to enact legislation that would provide workers with a "living wage." Last year, AFSCME worked with the church-based group Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) in getting a law passed in Baltimore, Maryland that guaranteed a living wage to employees working under city contracts. The move launched what has become a living wage movement in cities and states around the country, including Buffalo, New York, and Portland, Oregon.
"Baltimore's living wage law guaranteed that any worker employed under a city service contract would earn at least $6.10 an hour," McEntee said. "That hourly rate will rise to $7.70 an hour in 1999. Baltimore's living wage law goes a long way toward improving the lives of working men and women who once had to support their families on a minimum wage that is woefully inadequate and unfair."
The minimum wage has not been raised since April 1, 1991. Since then, McEntee said, real wages have dropped significantly, making it impossible for workers earning the minimum wage to stay above the poverty line.
"Minimum wage workers earn just $8,840 a year for full time work," McEntee said. "In 1979, a full-time worker at minimum wage could maintain a family of three just above the poverty line. In 1994, an employee supporting a three person family, working full time at minimum wage, would have fallen $2,503 short of the poverty line. A minimum raise of 45 cents an hour would pull this family over the poverty line. At $5.15 per hour, a full-time minimum wage worker in the same family of three would earn $10,712 per year, and would be eligible for an earned income tax credit of $3,560."
At the same time, McEntee said, "we see manufacturing jobs replaced by low-wage service work. We see permanent, full-time jobs replaced by temporary, part-time work. And we see good public jobs privatized and replaced by low-wage, dead-end contract jobs. Our nation pays a high price for having a large working-poor population, including a decline in tax revenue, an increase in the food stamp rolls, inadequate medical care, and a multitude of other social maladies that come with poverty."
The AFSCME president praised recent efforts by Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), John Kerry (D-MA), Paul Wellstone (D-MN) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) for their efforts to increase the minimum wage, and sharply criticized Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), the majority leader and Republican presidential candidate, for blocking efforts to vote on the issue.
"It's clear that when it comes to the issues affecting working people, Senator Dole just doesn't get it," McEntee said. "By fighting tooth and nail against even a moderate increase to the minimum wage, Senator Dole has sent a strong message that the poor -- even the working poor -- don't deserve a decent wage." By contrast, "Senators Kennedy, Kerry, Wellstone, and Boxer, by proposing an increase to the minimum wage, have demonstrated a clear understanding of how difficult it has become for low-income workers to afford the basics: food, shelter and clothing for their families. We support this effort."
But McEntee pointed out that a modest increase to the minimum wage, while beneficial to low-income families, is "just a basic step in improving the lives of working families. We will continue in this fight to secure a decent, living wage for the millions of workers who are barely surviving on an inadequate minimum wage. And, while we applaud efforts to increase the minimum wage, we urge lawmakers to go even further by enacting laws that will provide working families with a true living wage."
