WASHINGTON (RNS) Religious leaders and advocates, not satisfied with the 70-cent rise in the federal minimum wage that went into effect on Friday (July 24), are calling on congressional leaders to hike it up to $10 by 2010.
Even after the increase to $7.25 an hour, more than 600 interfaith leaders across the nation have signed a letter sponsored by a non-profit coalition whose aim is to raise the federal and state minimum wage to a “living wage.”
Borrowing their name from a Bible verse that says “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an overflowing stream,” the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign members are redoubling efforts to increase wages on pace with inflation.
“We think this truly is a faith issue, a moral issue,” said the Rev. Steve Copley, board chairman of the Campaign. “People who’ve worked hard and played by the rules … don’t have enough to live on.”
The wage increase was a “necessary step,” he said, but still not enough. The $7.25 rate is the third step in a three-step adjustment that raised wages over two years from $5.15 an hour, which had been unchanged since 1997.
Directors of the Campaign say minimum wage raises are a “well-targeted stimulus” because they go to those who need it the most. Business leaders say increasing the minimum wage can hurt small businesses and cost jobs.
Copley, the leader of the Give Arkansas a Raise Now coalition that raised the Arkansas minimum wage in 2006, said the Campaign is first amassing religious, labor and community leaders, and then will attempt to rally support on Capitol Hill.
Last week’s increase was the third wage hike since the Campaign’s inception in 2004. “We’ve been really successful and we hope to be even more successful,” Copley said.