Faith Leaders Seek Just Wage during Martin Luther King Holiday
Christian representatives will join politicians and community leaders next week to honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to rally for a fair minimum wage for all workers.
WASHINGTON – Christian representatives will join politicians and community leaders next week to honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to rally for a fair minimum wage for all workers.
"Dr. King was fully committed to low wage working people and their families. There is no better way to celebrate his birthday than to advocate for a raise in the minimum wage so that, in the words of the prophet Amos, justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream," said the Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, coordinator of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign.
The Jan. 14-16 “Living Wage Days” events follow a large setback to the participants who unsuccessfully rallied against the passage of a budget bill in Congress last month.
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Despite the passage of the bill, progressive Christians will be joining Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) with another call to give American workers a raise. Senator Kennedy has brought to a vote a measure to increase the federal minimum wage twice in 2005 and was featured in several Christian-sponsored press conferences on the matter.
Kennedy will speak at the main “Living Wage Days” event at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 16 at the United First Parish Church Unitarian in Quincy, Mass. Meanwhile, a number of similar events are being planned around the country with a focus on the plight of low-wage workers.
According to statistics compiled by the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, the real value of minimum wage is more than $3.50 below what it was during Martin Luther King Jr.’s time in 1968. To have the purchasing power it had 35 years ago, low-wage workers would have to make $9.09 an hour today – not the current $5.15.
"In 1967, Dr. King called for 'the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty,’” explained the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, one of the campaign’s main sponsors. “This cannot be done without increasing the minimum wage. Unfortunately, the urgency of now was yesterday and we must make raising the minimum wage a priority.”
The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, which is comprised of more than 50 faith and community based organizations, is working on the national level as well as in a number of states including Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, West Virginia and Arkansas to support and advocate for minimum wage increases.
