Getting on Board for a Living Wage
Portland, Oregon
Political activity begins before dawn for Benjamin Dawson. His daily bus commute provides a great captive audience for getting petitions signed. His cause: getting an increased minimum wage initiative onto Oregon's ballot for the November elections.
The Oregon Minimum Wage and Economic Independence Act would gradually increase the state's minimum wage to $5.50 in 1997, to $6 in 1998 and to $6.50 in 1999.
"As things are, $4.75 an hour is hardly enough to live on yourself—let alone to support a family," Local 328 member Dawson tells many of his fellow commuters.
Local 3336 Exec. Board member Leslie Kochan is also deeply involved in the effort. She has coordinated the entire field operation here in Portland and worked on an April 20-21 AFSCME mobilization.
An AFSCME coalition won the first "living wage" initiative in Baltimore, Md., over a year ago by increasing minimum pay for employees of private sector companies that receive city funding.
In Minnesota, both houses of the legislature passed a bill that would require pay "at least equal" to the federal poverty level for a family of four—or $7.28 an hour. But Republican Gov. Arnie Carlson vetoed the bill.
Nationwide, these efforts have placed the Republican leadership in Washington on shaky ground in opposing a raise in the minimum wage. Candidates who do not support it will likely be hurt in the November elections.
The American people want a raise in the federal minimum wage. The statistics are staggering.
In Oregon, for example, more than 25 percent of workers are at the minimum wage or within $1 of it. These low-wage, temporary and part-time jobs with no benefits are on the rise.
These are the wages of America's working poor.
The federal current minimum wage of $4.25 an hour adds up to $8,348 a year for a full-time worker. That's $6,793 below the $15,141 poverty line for a family of four. Oregon's minimum is 50 cents higher than the federally mandated $4.25.
You often hear that these minimum wage jobs are held by youths. But some 63 percent of all minimum wage earners are adults. Worse yet, 36 percent are the sole providers for their families.
It's scary statistics like these that pushed Dawson and Kochan to serve on the Minimum Wage Campaign Steering Committee.
The first step toward putting the initiative on the ballot is gathering valid signatures from 73,261 registered voters. It's a task that takes a lot of creativity and shoe leather.
But it's worth it, says Kochan: "We see this as a way to mobilize folks around a different economic agenda—to fight back against attacks on workers. The minimum wage is the floor on which other wages are set. When the minimum wage is raised, other workers see their wages raised as well."
