Overview – Living Wages
Focus Text: Luke 16:19-31
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.
Pastoral Reflection by Rev. J. George Reed, Executive Director, NC Council of Churches
We were on our tour bus, about to leave the dorm where we had been staying, when a few of us saw her. She looked about sixty years old, and she looked like she could have been my grandmother. She came quietly around the corner of the building, went straight to the big trashcan, and started digging out our thrown-away lunches. She put what she could find in a bag, and she was gone.
Sheltered life that I had led, I had never before seen someone using a trashcan as a food source.
Personal Vignette by Jason R. Jenkins, A Living Wage for North Carolina: An Introduction
In January 1998, the City of Durham passed a living wage ordinance requiring all service contractors doing business with the city to pay workers “enough money to support a family of four above the poverty level.” In 2001, the City Council folded city employees into the living wage mandate and set the rate at $9.15 per hour.
Key Fact
The Federal minimum wage increased to $7.25 on July 24, 2009 which provides an annual salary of $15,080 per year. However, according to the NC Justice Center’s Living Income Standard calculation, the typical North Carolina family with children must earn $41,184 per year to afford basic expenses. That amount requires adults in the average family to earn a total of $19.80 per hour, more than triple the amount of the current minimum wage.
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Focus Text – Luke 16:19-31
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
Luke 16:19-31
Additional Texts
You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning.
Leviticus 19:13
You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns.
Deuteronomy 24:14
“Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now rise up,” says the Lord; “I will place them in the safety for which they long.”
Psalm 12:5
Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help. When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish. Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob… who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the strangers and upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked God brings to ruin.
Psalm 146:3-9
The field of the poor may yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice.
Proverbs 13:23
Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey… To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?
Isaiah 10:1-4
Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
James 5:4
Other Lectionary Texts
- Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
- Amos 6:1a, 4-7
- Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
- Psalm 146
- I Timothy 6:6-19
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Commentary on Luke 16:19-31
Jesus was masterful at using stories to challenge the power and status of the religious elite in his day. With just a few short lines of dialogue (“Blessed are the poor”) or common agrarian images (like a mustard seed), he narrates what it means to live in the kingdom of God. Our passage today, “The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus,” is part of a longer discourse that Jesus gives in response to being “ridiculed” by a particular group of Pharisees, whom Luke says were “lovers of money” (16:14).
Jesus has much to say about money in the gospel of Luke. The gospel opens with Mary’s Magnificat, a prayer that celebrates the God of Israel who fills “the hungry with good things” and who sends “the rich away empty” (1:53). Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain” (a similar passage to Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount”) offers blessings upon the poor and woes upon the rich (see 6:24). Luke 12 features a parable about a rich fool, who stored up treasure for himself but was “not rich towards God” (12:21). In Luke 14, Jesus received hospitality from a leader of the Pharisees and says to everyone gathered, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (14:12-14). The “rich young ruler,” Zacchaeus, and the poor widow at the temple are all important figures in Luke. And just before Jesus juxtaposes the rich man’s wasteful decadence and Lazarus’ devastating poverty, he tells the crowd, “No slave can serve two masters… You cannot serve both God and wealth” (16:13).
Our passage may be divided into two complementary parts. The first section (16:19-26) tells the story of the anonymous rich man and Lazarus (one of the only named characters in all of Jesus’ parables), emphasizing the way in which the rich man ignored Lazarus during his lifetime, only to realize after death how much he needs him (16:24). This section affirms God’s “preferential option for the poor” while at the time striking an ominous note for those who ignore the poor in their midst. The second part of the passage emphasizes how Jesus’ teaching is not really new; it is simply a reiteration of the Law (i.e. Moses) and the Prophets (see for example Deut. 15 and Isaiah 58). To those who would look for some other reason to care for the poor and to work for justice, Jesus would offer none. New Testament scholar Richard Hays notes that “Abraham’s chilling answer [to the rich man] reveals much about Lukan theology and ethics: ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ Even the resurrection – even Jesus’ own resurrection – remains futile, a mute apparition, for those who harden their hearts against Moses and the prophets. On the other hand, those who heed Jesus will understand that the message of Scripture calls the community to precisely the sort of generous sharing that is exemplified by the Jerusalem church in the early chapters of Acts” (The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 1996, p. 124).
By Chris Liu-Beers, Program Associate, NC Council of Churches
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Pastoral Reflection on Luke 16:19-31
I can still see her in my mind’s eye.
It was 1969, and I was part of a choir premiering the folk musical “Good News” in Europe. (In Baptist circles, it was the trailblazing work that brought – gasp! – guitars into a lot of churches.) One of our stops was a large gathering in Berne, Switzerland, of Baptist youth from all over the world.
Bag lunches were served every day to all of us at the Youth Congress, several thousand people. The meal included a piece of luncheon meat. (I remember distinctly that it was tongue one day.) There was a hard roll, about the size and consistency of a baseball. A piece of fruit. And a candy bar that tasted like instant coffee flakes dipped in chocolate. We groused a lot about the lunches and tossed a lot of food in the trash.
We were on our tour bus, about to leave the dorm where we had been staying, when a few of us saw her. She looked about sixty years old, and she looked like she could have been my grandmother. She came quietly around the corner of the building, went straight to the big trashcan, and started digging out our thrown-away lunches. She put what she could find in a bag, and she was gone.
Sheltered life that I had led, I had never before seen someone using a trashcan as a food source.
The focal passage for today is one of Jesus’ most famous stories. What a study in contrasts! The rich man “feasting sumptuously” every day. We may feast on Thanksgiving and Christmas, or even for regular Sunday dinners. But every day? And he dressed in the finest clothes. He clearly had it made. By contrast, Lazarus ate whatever crumbs he could find, and his health care was provided by the neighborhood dogs. The contrast continues after both have died. Lazarus finds himself in heaven, comforted by none other than Father Abraham. Rich Man finds himself in hell, not comforted by anybody.
And what was Rich Man’s sin? Why did he end up in hell, looking over to the other side? The passage doesn’t say for sure. It does not say that his failing was simply his wealth. There’s nothing to suggest that he had gotten rich directly at the expense of Lazarus. Or that Lazarus was his oppressed worker. Or that Rich Man kicked Lazarus every time he went by. There’s really nothing to indicate that Rich Man ever even paid any attention to Lazarus. And maybe that’s it. Maybe Rich Man had managed to come and go, day after day, without really seeing Lazarus outside his house. How could Rich Man help if he didn’t even see the man in need?
John put things in the proper order when he asked, “If you have the world’s goods and see your brother and sister in need, yet close your heart against them, how does God’s love abide in you?” (I John 3:17).
I first had to see the woman in Berne. And, while I can’t tell you that we piled off our bus and rushed over to help, I can tell you that her image had a lot to do in pointing me towards ministry that addresses the laws and systems that force people to become dumpster divers.
For those of us who are comfortably middle class (or above), the situation of our brothers and sisters who toil away at low wage jobs is something we just don’t see. The minimum wage is currently $6.15 per hour (and only this year up from $5.15). You can run the math on that. $6.15 per hour. Forty hours per week. Fifty-two weeks per year. One person working full-time, all year, with no vacation, no time off for anything, would earn $13,972, before payroll taxes.
We could talk about how that’s less money than the federal poverty level for a family of four. And we could talk about how that poverty level is an outdated measure of poverty, how a family living just above “poverty” can’t pay for its basic needs.
Instead, I want you to imagine yourself as a single parent with one or two kids. Try figuring out your family budget. Start with rent. If you are not a renter, check out what rents are in your community. Find out what kind of place you and your kids would have for $500 per month. It’s another part of actually seeing Lazarus.
Then there’s food. Transportation to get to your job. Child care, if your kids are too young to be at home by themselves. Telephone. Clothes. Can you imagine what that life would be like? For those of us who have never been there, I doubt that we can. But it’s those of us who have never been there who, like Rich Man, most need to see our modern-day Lazaruses.
And then, as John says, we will be inclined to help, because, after all, we do know God’s love.
That help may take the form of charity. Giving canned goods and used clothes. Helping out at the free clinic. Working on a Habitat home. But our response also needs to include justice. It’s just not right for someone working full-time not to earn enough to support her family. For those of us who are employers, the justice response means paying our employees a living wage. And being sure that our churches and other religious institutions are paying a living wage. To all our employees.
And for all of us, the justice response means working to raise the minimum wage to something that is actually adequate to support a family’s basic needs. In the summer of 2006, a strong coalition of faith-based activists—bishops and laypeople, pastors and children, conservatives and progressives—came together to secure passage of legislation which increased the minimum wage. We can do it again. We must do it again.
Because low-wage workers still struggle to make ends meet. And because, having seen them, how can we not help?
By Rev. J. George Reed, Executive Director, NC Council of Churches
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Worship Aids for Luke 16:19-31
Responsive Reading
Generous Lord, show us how to trade places to see with the eyes of the prophets Your truth.
In Your mercy, forgive us. In Your grace, help us to hear Your word.
Isaiah said, “Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance, for truth stumbles in the public square” (Isa. 59:14).
In Your mercy, forgive us. In Your grace, help us to hear Your word.
Jeremiah said, “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages” (Jer.22:13).
In Your mercy, forgive us. In Your grace, help us to hear Your word.
Amos said, “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land saying, ‘We will practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweeping of the
wheat’” (Amos 8:4-6).
In Your mercy, forgive us. In Your grace, help us to hear Your word.
Malachi said, “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me” (Mal. 3:1).
In Your mercy, forgive us. In Your grace, help us to hear Your word.
Mary said, “The Lord has shown strength and scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts” (Luke 1:51).
In Your mercy, forgive us. In Your grace, help us to hear Your word.
Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he said, “Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:18-19, 21).
In Your mercy, forgive us. In Your grace, help us to hear Your word. In our hearing, God’s word will be fulfilled. Amen.
(from Let Justice Roll’s Living Wage Days 2006, www.letjusticeroll.org/pdfs/LWResources.pdf)
Prayer of Confession
Benevolent God,
We confess that we have neglected the poor and destitute in our society, oftentimes assuming that because we are blessed with material wealth, we have your special favor.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Forgive our silence as millions of Americans, often without the benefit of an adequate education, struggle economically to enjoy what we daily take for granted.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Forgive us for our unwillingness to see the world as you see it. Holy Spirit, push us towards action to close the wealth gap in this country, so that all of your creatures may enjoy your gift of life without experiencing hunger, inaccessibility to healthcare, and fatigue from overworking.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Amen.
(by Jason R. Jenkins)
A Responsive Reading for Workers and Our Nation
God, give us the imagination we need today to live in a land where justice and compassion flourish.
Lord, hear our prayer.
God, show us how to provide, so that across this land everyone who needs a job has one. Give us the resolve to make this a nation where no one earns less than a living wage; where compensation between genders—right down to each shiny penny—is equal, and men and women are equally valued; where those who cannot work and the elderly are fully provided and cared for; where immigrants are free from exploitation; where corporations give equal weight to social responsibility and profitability.
Lord, hear our prayer.
God, help us to make fair trade of goods and services between nations standard practice, promoting genuine global harmony. Fill us with the wisdom to aid our nation to support the wise use of global resources with the aim of providing
everyone with fair wages and livable economic conditions.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Creator God, transform our world, and transform our hearts and minds. Make us into one people, your people.
Amen.
(from The United Church of Christ, www.ucc.org/justice/workers.pdf)
Prayer for a Living Wage
Loving God, we thank you for the grace of work. We give thanks for jobs that fulfill Your intention for work, for jobs where we can use our hands to build houses of peace, for jobs where we can use our minds to explore the mysteries of the universe, for jobs where we can use our hearts to offer care to those in need.
We confess, loving God, that many of us take our work for granted and turn a blind eye toward those without jobs and those whose jobs do not pay enough for food and shelter for their families. We acknowledge our need to remember that Your covenant of work assumes mutual responsibility between workers and employers so that all members of the community may be blessed and prosper.
And so today, we pray for those who suffer the injustice of a job with wages insufficient to care for their family’s needs. We pray for workers forced to take two low-paying jobs to survive. We pray for workers denied the dignity of earning a living wage, “a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work.”
Forgive us our negligence, and spur us to work for change. Let none of us be satisfied until all our brothers and sisters earn a living wage. Move us to employ our gifts and talents so that each of us contributes to a world where all Your children are paid a just and living wage for their daily work. Amen.
(Adapted from a prayer by Joan Malone, Coalition for Economic Justice, www.midsouthinterfaith.org/index/labor_pulpits/lip_prayers_06.doc)
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Suggested Hymns for Living Wages
O For a World
Chalice Hymnal (Disciples of Christ) 683
New Century Hymnal (UCC) 575
Presbyterian Hymnal 386
God of Grace and God of Glory
Moravian Book of Worship 751
African Methodist Episcopal 62
Chalice Hymnal (Disciples of Christ) 464
New Century Hymnal (UCC) 436
United Methodist Hymnal 577
The Hymnal 1982 (Episcopal) 594
What Does the Lord Require?
United Methodist Hymnal 441
Presbyterian Hymnal 405
Chalice Hymnal (Disciples of Christ) 661
Moravian book of Worship 695
The Hymnal 1982 (Episcopal) 605
The Harvest of Justice
Gather Hymnal (Catholic) 300
Behold a Broken World
United Methodist Hymnal 426
Moravian Book of Worship 691
Cuando El Pobre
Presbyterian Hymnal 407
Chalice Hymnal (Disciples of Christ) 662
United Methodist Hymnal 434
Moravian Book of Worship 689
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Quotes about Living Wages
That world of the poor, we say, is the key to understanding the Christian faith …the poor are the ones who tell us what the world is and what service the church must offer to the world.
Oscar Romero
Americans are wondering what’s happened to their government. They are working hard to raise strong families and to live the American dream. But with each passing day, they find the American dream farther and farther out of reach as they struggle just to make ends meet….working families don’t ask for much. Low and middle-income families are doing their part. But they could use a little fair play from their government as they are facing such hard times.
Senator Edward Kennedy
A just wage for the worker is the ultimate test of whether an economic system is functioning justly.
John Paul II
There has never been but one question in all civilization – how to keep a few men from saying to many men: “You work and earn bread and we will eat it.”
Abraham Lincoln
No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
A job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it.
Holly Sklar and Paul Sherry
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Vignette about Living Wages
Local Communities Take Action: Living Wage Ordinances for Durham
In January 1998, the City of Durham passed a living wage ordinance requiring all service contractors doing business with the city to pay workers “enough money to support a family of four above the poverty level.” In 2001, the City Council folded city employees into the living wage mandate and set the rate at $9.15 per hour.
In 2003, the Durham County Commissioners adopted a living wage for all county employees and, with a few exceptions, service contractors. It set the rate at not less than 7.5% above the federal poverty level (FPL) for a family of four. By tying the rate to the FPL, the wage rises automatically with inflation. The County also mandated health
insurance for those covered by the ordinance. Later, the Durham County Board of Education established the same measures for its employees.
In 2005, Duke University increased its pay to all university employees to at least $10 per hour. In May 2007, Duke began to require companies with contracts to sell food on campus to pay their workers by the same standards.
Durham C.A.N. (Congregations, Associations, and Neighborhoods) has involved people of faith in these campaigns for a living wage in Durham. It is a broad-based, interfaith, and ecumenical coalition that uses the model of leadership development and community organizing of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). For more information, see www.durhamcan.org.
By Jason R. Jenkins, “A Living Wage for North Carolina: An Introduction,” p. 17, published by the NC Council of Churches, NC Fair Wages Coalition, and Let Justice Roll, available online at: http://www.nccouncilofchurches.org/2006/09/a-living-wage-for-north-carolina-an-introduction/.
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Contacts and Resources for Living Wages
http://www.nccouncilofchurches.org/2006/09/a-living-wage-for-north-carolina-an-introduction/
North Carolina Council of Churches, “A Living Wage for North Carolina: An Introduction,” by Jason R. Jenkins, is a primer on the issue of a living wage from a local, faith-based perspective. It includes facts, biblical quotes, and stories of North Carolina cities that are taking steps towards a living wage.
www.letjusticeroll.org
‘Let Justice Roll’ Living Wage Campaign: Faith and Community Voices Against Poverty is a nonpartisan program of more than one hundred faith-based and community-based organizations, working in support of federal legislation to raise the federal minimum wage and state legislation and ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage to a living wage at the state and federal level. The website has excellent resources and updates surrounding both federal and states’ minimum wage campaigns.
www.ncjustice.org/?q=node/23
North Carolina Justice Center, “Support for Working Families,” is a website containing practical analysis and insightful reports on living wage issues in North Carolina.
www.livingwagecampaign.org
ACORN’s Living Wage Resource Center is a webpage of the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now. This site contains a brief history of the national living wage movement, background materials such as ordinance summaries and comparisons, drafting tips, research summaries, talking points, and links to other living wage-related sites.
www.pcusa.org/hunger/downloads/hae_session.pdf
This Presbyterian study guide, entitled “Hunger No More: The Worker Deserves a Wage,” can be used for teaching about the importance of living wages from a biblical perspective.
www.iwj.org
Interfaith Worker Justice is an interfaith non-profit organization which appeals to religious values in order to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community in the U.S. on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and working conditions for workers, especially low-wage workers. IWJ believes workers should have the right to organize and to engage in collective bargaining. Because many U.S. workers are being denied these rights, IWJ has a joint partnership with the Department of Labor to help guarantee and enforce these basic rights. Too often the religious community and the labor communities have worked in isolation from one another. IWJ promotes opportunities for labor leaders and people of faith to work together, including workshops and field placements for seminarians, novices, and rabbinical students.
www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu
Living Wage Calculator estimates the cost of living in your community or region. In many American communities, families working in low-wage jobs make insufficient income to live locally given the local cost of living. Community organizers and citizens argue that the prevailing wage offered by the public sector and key businesses should reflect a wage rate required to meet minimum standards of living. The calculator lists typical expenses, the living wage and typical wages for the selected location.
www.epi.org
The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit Washington D.C. think tank, was created in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers. Today, with global competition expanding, wage inequality rising, and the methods and nature of work changing in fundamental ways, it is as crucial as ever that people who work for a living have a voice in the economic discourse.
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Key Facts about Living Wages
1. Federal, and North Carolina, minimum wage increased to $7.25 July 24, 2009.
2. Myth: No one who works for a living is poor. Most minimum wage workers are not poor and do not need a raise.
Reality: No one who works full-time in America should be poor, but in fact many poor people are low-wage workers.
3. An estimated 4.5 million workers (over 3 percent of the US workforce) received an increase in their hourly wage rate when the minimum wage increased to $7.25 in 2009. Of these workers, 2.8 million workers earned less than $7.25 and will be directly affected by the increase. The additional 1.6 million workers earning slightly above the minimum, were indirectly affected, benefiting from an increase due to “spillover effects.” These spillover effects preserve the wage structure in a firm.
4. The Federal minimum wage increased to $7.25 on July 24, 2009 which provides an annual salary of $15,080 per year. However, according to the NC Justice Center’s Living Income Standard calculation, the typical North Carolina family with children must earn $41,184 per year to afford basic expenses. That amount requires adults in the average family to earn a total of $19.80 per hour, more than triple the amount of the current minimum wage.
5. While the federal minimum wage has never been sufficient to meet the basic needs of a family, it has lost significant value over time. Adjusted to 2007 dollars, the value of minimum wage peaked in 1968. To provide the same buying power to low-wage workers in North Carolina, the minimum wage needs to be increased to more than $10 per hour. To prevent further erosion of the value of the wage floor, the minimum wage should be indexed to inflation.
6. The minimum wage has varied from a maximum of 94 percent of the poverty level in 1968 and has averaged approximately two thirds (69 percent) of the poverty level since 1959, when the poverty level was established. The lowest percentage the annual income from the minimum wage has been of the poverty level was 2006 (52 percent), just before Congress raised it for the first time in a decade. Minimum wages have never been sufficient to raise a family out of poverty, if only one member of the family works.
7. Over the period from 1979 – 2003, the lowest-paid North Carolinians saw their wages increase by $0.88 per hour, while middle-income workers saw an increase of $2.17 per hour.
8. Myth: Most of the workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase are teenagers who work part-time to earn extra spending money.
Reality: The majority of minimum wage workers are adults. Many minimum wage workers contribute substantially to family income.
9. Nearly 13 percent of US families and 9 percent of North Carolina families have house hold incomes less than $15,000.
10. The July 2009 minimum wage increase to $7.25 benefits working families.
- An estimated 430,000 single parents with children under 18 will benefit from a minimum wage increase.
- Single parents will benefit disproportionately from an increase—single parents will make up 10% of workers affected by this increase, but they make up only 7% of the overall workforce. In addition, approximately 2.2 million children will benefit as their parents’ wages are increased.
- Adults make up the largest share of workers who will benefit from a minimum wage increase: 76% of workers whose wages will be raised by a minimum wage increase to $7.25 in 2009 are adults (age 20 or older).
- Almost half (47%) of workers who will benefit from a minimum wage increase work full time and another third (34%) work between 20 and 34 hours per week.
11. The North Carolina Budget and Tax Center at the North Carolina Justice Center developed a Living Income Standard (LIS), a market-based approach for estimating how much income working families with children need to pay for basic expenses in North Carolina.
12. Examination of the 2008 LIS finds that the typical North Carolina family with children must earn $41,184 annually – an amount equal to 207 percent of the average federal poverty level (for the four family types) – to afford the actual costs of seven essential expenses: housing, food, childcare, health care, transportation, other necessities and taxes. To meet that level, the adults in the average family would need to earn a combined $19.80 per hour for every working hour of every week of the year.
13. An estimated 37 percent of the North Carolina families fall below that modest income threshold. Women, African Americans, Hispanics and immigrants are disproportionately likely to live in families below the LIS. And 60 percent of the adults in those families work full-time.
14. In 2007, over 700,000 or 30 percent of North Carolina families earned less than $35,000 or $16.83 per hour.
15. Myth: Increasing the minimum wage would harm workers by causing substantial job loss.
Reality: Minimum wage increases have not caused job loss.
16. There is no evidence of job loss from previous minimum wage increases.
- A 1998 EPI study failed to find any systematic, significant job loss associated with the 1996-97 minimum wage increase. In fact, following the increase in the minimum wage in 1996-97, the low-wage labor market performed better than it had in decades (e.g., lower unemployment rates, increased average hourly wages, increased family income, decreased poverty rates).
- Studies of the 1990-91 federal and several state minimum wage increases, also found no measurable negative impact on employment.
- New economic models that look specifically at low-wage labor markets help explain why there is little evidence of job loss associated with minimum wage increases. These models recognize that employers may be able to absorb some of the costs of a wage increase through higher productivity, lower recruiting and training costs, decreased absenteeism, and increased worker morale.
- A recent Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) study of state minimum wages found no evidence of negative employment effects on small businesses.
17. Minimum wage increases stimulate the economy through increased consumer spending.
- A study by the Chicago Federal Reserve found that households with minimum wage workers increase their spending when the minimum wage goes up.
- EPI estimates that the increase to $7.25 will, over the course of the following 12 months, boost consumer spending by over $5.5 billion.
Sources
- NC Department of Labor, http://www.nclabor.com/wh/fact%20sheets/minimum_wage_in_NC.htm
- “Raising the Minimum Wage: Talking Points and Background,” AFL-CIO Legislation Department, May 2006, www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/livingwages/upload/minimumwage_handbook.pdf
- Economic Policy Institute, “Fact sheet for 2009 minimum wage increase—Minimum Wage Issue Guide, July 20, 2009,”www.epi.org/publications/entry/mwig_fact_sheet/
- North Carolina Justice Center, “Support for Working Families: Boosting Incomes,” http://74.220.215.210/~ncjustic/?q=node/193
- North Carolina Justice Center, “Support for Working Families: Boosting Incomes,” http://74.220.215.210/~ncjustic/?q=node/193
- Values were calculated using Federal Minimum wage values from the US Department of Labor, www.dol.gov/esa/whd/minimumwage.htm, Poverty Thresholds from the US Census Bureau, www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld.html and were adjusted to 2009 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl (CPI calculator uses the consumer price index average for a given year)
- Jason R. Jenkins, “A Living Wage for North Carolina: An Introduction,” published by the NC Council of Churches, NC Fair Wages Coalition, and Let Justice Roll, available online at www.nccouncilofchurches.org/resources/downloads/Living%20Wage%20for%20NC%20Report-Final.pdf.
- “Raising the Minimum Wage: Talking Points and Background,” AFL-CIO Legislation Department, May 2006, www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/livingwages/upload/minimumwage_handbook.pdf
- US Census Bureau, American Community Survey, Selected Economic Characteristics: 2007
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?-geo_id=04000US37&-qr_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_DP3&-ds_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_
- Economic Policy Institute, “Fact sheet for 2009 minimum wage increase—Minimum Wage Issue Guide, July 20, 2009,”www.epi.org/publications/entry/mwig_fact_sheet/
- North Carolina Justice Center, “LIVING INCOME STANDARD, 2008: Making ends meet on low wages,” www.ncjustice.org/sites/default/files/2008%20LIS%20report%20(Final%20March%2025).pdf
- North Carolina Justice Center, “LIVING INCOME STANDARD, 2008: Making ends meet on low wages,” www.ncjustice.org/sites/default/files/2008%20LIS%20report%20(Final%20March%2025).pdf
Values were calculated using the minimum wage of $7.25, the FPL from the US Census Bureau, “Preliminary Estimates of Weighted Average Poverty Thresholds for 2008,” www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld/08prelim.html; FPL – 2008 weighted federal poverty levels, $19,929 is the average weighted federal poverty level for the four family types used.
- North Carolina Justice Center, “LIVING INCOME STANDARD, 2008: Making ends meet on low wages,” www.ncjustice.org/sites/default/files/2008%20LIS%20report%20(Final%20March%2025).pdf
- US Census Bureau, American Community Survey, Selected Economic Characteristics: 2007
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?-geo_id=04000US37&-qr_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_DP3&-ds_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_
- “Raising the Minimum Wage: Talking Points and Background,” AFL-CIO Legislation Department, May 2006, www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/livingwages/upload/minimumwage_handbook.pdf
- Economic Policy Institute, “Fact sheet for 2009 minimum wage increase—Minimum Wage Issue Guide, July 20, 2009,”www.epi.org/publications/entry/mwig_fact_sheet/
- Economic Policy Institute, “Fact sheet for 2009 minimum wage increase—Minimum Wage Issue Guide, July 20, 2009,”www.epi.org/publications/entry/mwig_fact_sheet/
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?-geo_id=04000US37&-qr_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_DP3&-ds_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_
Values were calculated using the minimum wage of $7.25, the FPL from the US Census Bureau, “Preliminary Estimates of Weighted Average Poverty Thresholds for 2008,” www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld/08prelim.html; FPL – 2008 weighted federal poverty levels, $19,929 is the average weighted federal poverty level for the four family types used.
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?-geo_id=04000US37&-qr_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_DP3&-ds_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_
