Support an increase in the Minimum Wage in PA!

The Pennsylvania minimum wage has not been raised from $5.15/hour since 1997.  Many groups have joined through the Raise the Minimum Wage Coalition (a Pennsylvania-based effort involving labor, faith, and other groups) to work toward passing legislation to raise the PA minimum wage to $7.15/hour with a cost of living index.  According to a Keystone Research Center study, such an increase would help over 860,000 PA workers get an increase in their paychecks.

Several Bills are currently before the PA Legislature.  A bill that is favored by leaders in the Senate would raise the minimum wage to $6.15/hour.  A House bill would keep the current minimum wage for 16- and 17-year-olds, preserving the typical “summer job”.  For everyone else, the rate would move to $5.70 an hour this year, and $6.25 an hour in 2007.  The governor and some of the legislative leaders favor an increase to $7.15/hour. 

LAMPa supports any increase in the minimum wage.  You are encouraged to engage your representatives in dialogue regarding the necessity for an increase. 

Unfortunately, while any increase is a step forward, it would take a great deal more than raising the minimum wage even to $7.15/hour to bring us to parity with minimum wage levels in the past.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the inflation-adjusted 1968 wage would be approximately $9.16 in today’s dollars (as of mid-November).  In other words, if the minimum wage of 1968 had kept pace with inflation, a minimum wage worker would be earning $4.00/hour more than the current $5.15/hour.

Even though any decision would be a modest step, an increase is a step forward, recognizing that the political will does not exist at this moment to bring us into parity with the spending power of 1968.

Some suggestions: 

·    Make direct contact with your representatives through a personal visit, letter, e-mail, or telephone call to their    offices. 

·    Send letters to your local newspapers supporting an increase in the minimum wage, noting that you take this position as a person of faith. 

·    Submit articles to your congregation’s newsletter that would educate members, urging them to contact their legislators.

You are urged to this response because of a strong scriptural basis. God, through the prophet Jeremiah, emphasizes that we cannot live in wealth while paying those who work for us little or nothing.  Christians are called to love their neighbors as themselves, a principle that would naturally extend to wages in a Christian community – pay others as you would like to be paid.  The prophet Malachi speaks of the just anger of the Lord in reference to wages.  He describes the coming of the Lord and the refiner’s fire that will clear out the impurities, which includes a litany of sinners including sorcerers and adulterers, but also “those who oppress the hired workers in their wages” (3:1-5).

You are urged to act immediately.  This issue is currently before both Houses.  A concerned voice from the faith community will assist in reaching a larger support for over 860,000 workers.