UUSC and Partner Support Living-Wage Campaigns in Maryland and Illinois

With the federal minimum wage frozen at $7.25 per hour since 2009, people who work in minimum-wage jobs are struggling to make ends meet and support their families on poverty-level wages. As part of ongoing efforts to build a national movement for living wages, especially in these hard economic times, UUSC and its partner Let Justice Roll are calling for continued grassroots support for minimum-wage increases at the state levels. Together they are working to bolster two new living-wage campaigns in Maryland and Illinois.

The current minimum wages of Maryland and Illinois translate into only $15,000 a year and $17,000 a year, respectively, for minimum-wage workers. People receiving such inadequate pay work as full-time child-care workers, health aides, security guards, and more — a full range of essential occupations. These wages are not enough to live on.

In Maryland, Let Justice Roll is working with the Raise Maryland campaign to gradually raise Maryland's state minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10 by 2013. This increase would infuse an estimated one billion additional dollars into the local Maryland economy. Let Justice Roll Board member Rev. Ken Brooker Langston spoke at the press conference that launched the campaign:

"In 1968, just days before his assassination, Dr. King told striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, ‘It is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis but getting a part-time income. We are tired of working our hands off and laboring every day and not even making a wage adequate for daily, basic necessities of life.' Well, to our shame and our discredit, the real value of the minimum wage today is less than it was when Dr. King spoke those prophetic words on that day."

In Illinois, the minimum wage would be about $10 today if it had kept pace with the rising cost of living since the 1960s. The campaign there calls for restoring the historic value of the minimum wage ($1.60 in 1968, which is $10.03 in 2010 dollars, adjusted for inflation) with annual increases of 50 cents plus inflation. After its historic value is restored, the minimum wage should be adjusted annually so it does not again fall behind the rising cost of living.

As Let Justice Roll's tagline puts it, "A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it." If you live or work in Maryland or Illinois, find out what you can do to support these campaigns. And if you know someone who lives or works there, spread the word. Langston spoke of the Maryland campaign, "We believe that by coming together and working together, we can and we will get it done." His words ring true for the struggles to enact living wages throughout the country.