c. 2007 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ Religious leaders rallied behind the House vote on Wednesday (Jan. 10) to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, but say more needs to be done to create a “living wage” for working families.
“The raise asked for (by the House) is modest but quite significant,” said the Rev. Paul Sherry, former president of the United Church of Christ and the national coordinator of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign. “Raising the minimum wage is an important way station on the way to a living wage for all families.”
The minimum wage hike easily cleared the House in a 315-116 vote; more than 80 Republicans joined the Democratic majority to approve the bill. However, it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Republicans would like to add tax breaks for small businesses to the legislation.
Still, several religious organizations said the increase was only a step toward their goal of a living wage for workers.
Catholic Charities USA defines a living wage as a salary that keeps workers and their families above the poverty line, which in 2006 was $20,000 per year for a family of four. Even with the minimum wage increase, a worker earning $7.25 per hour, working five days per week, 52 weeks per year, still would earn only $15,080.
The Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities, referred to the situation as “a moral crisis in a country as wealthy as the United States.”
“Today, too many Americans work hard but cannot make ends meet,” Snyder said.
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One of those Americans, Stephanie Baldwin, 26, appeared with Snyder at a Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday.
Four years ago, Baldwin was homeless. But even after finding work as a secretary through Catholic Charities in Trenton, N.J., she still feels as though she is “on the edge of poverty.”
Baldwin said she is unable to receive any governmental aid because assistance programs say she makes too much money to qualify for help. However, due to a lack of affordable housing, she has gradually been forced out of safer neighborhoods into more crime-ridden areas because she cannot afford to rent anywhere else.
Baldwin said she hopes to find housing in a better area by the time her son, who is 4, begins kindergarten.
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Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., said Congress “should have been dealing with the problem of the working poor a long time ago.”
“(The increase) was long overdue if you believe in economic justice, and if you believe in the Sermon on the Mount,” McDermott said.
McDermott agreed that the ultimate goal should be a living wage. “Minimum wage is exactly that, a minimum,” he said. “In my view this is really a first step.”
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Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, also has long advocated for a living wage.
“The highest form of charity is helping someone provide for themselves,” Saperstein said. “You can’t do that working full time … and remaining mired in poverty.”
Saperstein and representatives from Catholic Charities said they would support legislation indexing the minimum wage to inflation, and hope it will be introduced later this year.
KRE/PH END BOYLE
Editors: To obtain file photos of Snyder and Saperstein, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.
