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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Critical Living Wage Vote Monday Night |
Current rating: 0 |
by Mike Lehman
(No verified email address) |
24 Feb 2002
Modified: 25 Feb 2002 |
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An important vote for the future of the Living Wage will be taken by the Champaign County Board on Monday, February 25 at 7pm at the Brookens Administration Building at 1776 East Washington St., Urbana. |
An important vote for the future of the Living Wage will be taken by the Champaign County Board on Monday, February 25 at 7pm at the Brookens Administration Building at 1776 East Washington St., Urbana.
The Champaign County Living Wage Association calls on our supporters to respond by making it a standing room only event. Please show up and show your support. There is time for brief public comments at the beginning of the meeting. It is unclear at this point exactly where this vote will be listed in the agenda, so please come later anyway, if you can't be there right at the beginning of the meeting.
If you can't attend the meeting, please call or e-mail your county board representatives to let them know the public supports a Living Wage. You can find contact info for your reps here:
http://www.co.champaign.il.us/countybd/cbmembers.htm
We have received pledges of support for many board members from both the Democratic and Republican parties. However, since this vote will require some tough budget and policy choices, it is very important for the board to see that the public supports a Living Wage with a massive show of strength. With your help, and the help of the more than forty community groups, churches and associations listed below, we feel that the time has come for this important policy to be adopted for county employees.
AFL-CIO of Champaign County
American Federation of Federal, State, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 698
American Federation of Federal, State, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 900
American Federation of Federal, State, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3700
Best Interest of Children
Catholic Worker House, Champaign
Carpenters' Local 44
Champaign Church of the Brethren
Champaign County Health Care Consumers
Champaign Federation of Teachers
Champaign-Urbana Typographical Union #444
Channing Murray Foundation
Common Ground Food Cooperative
East Central Illinois Building & Construction Trades Council
First Mennonite Church of Champaign-Urbana
First United Methodist Church - Social Awareness Ministry
Graduate Employees Organization, Univ. Of Illinois
Holy Cross Parish, Peace & Justice Committee
Illinois Disciples Foundation
Illinois Education Association, Region 9 (21 Locals)
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 482
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 601
Labor Studies Club, University of Illinois
League of Women Voters of Champaign County
McKinley Memorial Presbyterian Church
Terry Meadows - a member of the Teamsters, TDU and WZEF
Ministerial Alliance of Champaign-Urbana and Vicinity
NAACP of Champaign County
National Organization for Women, Champaign County
Parkland College Office of Women's Programs and Services
Planners Network, Champaign-Urbana chapter
Prairie Greens of East Central Illinois
Religious Leaders for Community Care
V. Rev. Stuart Swetland, Episcopal Vicar for Social Justice, Catholic Diocese of Peoria
St. Boniface Catholic Church, Seymour
St. John's Catholic Chapel/Newman Foundation at the University of Illinois
St. Mary Catholic Church
St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Social Action Committee
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73
Sierra Club, Prairie Group
Socialist Forum
Union of Professional Employees, University of Illinois, Executive Committee
UIUC Association of Academic Professionals
University YWCA
Urbana-Champaign Friends (Quaker) Meeting
Women Against Racism
Mike Lehman
for the CCLWA |
See also:
http://www.prairienet.org/livingwage/
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Comments
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A CCLWA Member Replies To News-Gazette Editorial |
by Carolyn Mullally via Mike Lehman
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
24 Feb 2002
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The following response was prepared by a member of the Living Wage coalition in response to an editorial that the News-Gazette ran in its February 12 edition. Written by the editorial board of the News-Gazette, the editorial was a misinformed and factually incorrect attack on the idea of the Living Wage, an issue that the News-Gazette has seen fit to ignore for much of the four-year history of the campaign to adopt Living Wage policies in Champaign County.
The editors of the News-Gazette apparently have denied us the right of reply to their editorial, so we take the opportunity provided by the IMC to make the public aware of the facts concerning the Living Wage. Copies of this have also been sent to members of the county board.
This version has been updated to reflect the updated figures for the 2002 Living Wage that were released since it was written.
Mike Lehman
<_____________________________________________________________________________________>
Response to February 12 News-Gazette Editorial:
The February 12 Editorial of the News Gazette criticizes the Personnel and Public Officials Committee of the County Board for sending forward a Living Wage Resolution for county workers to the full County Board. The editorial implies that the proposed wage level is excessive because it is based on the wages needed to keep a family of four at the poverty level. Perhaps some explanation of how the Federal Poverty Guidelines are established would help to clarify matters.
The Federal Poverty Guidelines, issued by the Department of Health & Human Services yearly, are used in many need-based programs (such as Head Start, the Food Stamp Program, National School Lunch Program, Low-Income Energy Assistance Program and CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program). The Guidelines are based on studies done in the 1960s when the cost of food represented 1/3 of a family's budget. The cost of a "thrifty food plan" was calculated and then multiplied by 3 to arrive at the "poverty level." The proposed $8.70 an hour Living Wage translates to $18,100 a year, which is the poverty level for a family of four. In 2002, people spend only about 1/5 of their wages on food. Thus, the multiplier should be 5 instead of 3. If we used the more accurate multiplier of 5 to compute the poverty level for such a family today, the yearly figure would be $30,167 or $14.50 an hour. Living Wage Associations across the nation use the Federal Poverty Guidelines because they are a familiar part of the landscape for lower-paid workers, they are updated yearly and used in need-based tax-supported assistance programs, and because when the ACTUAL cost of living is calculated for each city/county/region, the amount is much higher than the Poverty Guidelines. This is not government policy based on perceived needs or emotions. These are simply the facts.
However, the concerned citizens of Champaign County who comprise the Living Wage Association realize that it is politically unrealistic to ask for the ACTUAL cost of living. We would have to ask for at least $10 an hour regardless of family size. At $8.70 an hour, a person's take-home pay would be in the neighborhood of $1,180 (after taxes, Social Security and Medicare) per month. The cheapest one-bedroom, non-student apartment rentals (and not many of them) are in the neighborhood of $350. The remaining $830 must cover food, clothing, utilities, transportation, medical and dental expenses, and if there are children, child-care. For a 2 bedroom apartment, most people will have to spend at least $450 for rent plus $85 for utilities, so $535 of that $1180 take-home pay would go to housing costs, a whopping 45% of household income!
Ah, you state in the News Gazette editorial, but we run by free market economics: hire the person to do the work at the lowest wage possible. That kind of thinking may work when you are trying to decide whether to hire a computer programmer at $50,000 or $55,000, but not when we are considering workers at the bottom rung of the pay scale: it simply perpetuates the underclass, dependent on the government for other tax-supported assistance. Similarly, the idea that wages are determined solely by the skills the person brings to the table is also flawed: the need for the specific job to be performed should also help determine the pay. In an organization like the County Nursing Home, every job has a utility. For example, without the services of the housekeeping or dietary service workers, the patients would go unfed and their rooms would not be cleaned. One could argue that these two services are vitally important to the good health of the patients, and to the continued high ratings of the Champaign County Nursing Home. Furthermore, by paying more adequate wages, employees are more likely to reduce absenteeism and stay on the job, both of which contribute to the ultimate "good health" of the Nursing Home.
Our Federal Government has made much of its welfare to work policies, with the idea that people would work in order to support themselves and their families. Local governments have supported this notion. It is disingenuous to suggest that local government (in this case, the Champaign County Board) should pay wages so depressed that their workers will have to continue to receive other forms of public assistance in order to sustain their families.
The Champaign County Living Wage Association believes that part of the solution to stopping the cycle of dependency on government programs to make ends meet lies in paying people enough to live in the first place. Better that our tax dollars be spent paying a just, i.e. Living Wage, than paying tax dollars out to shore up those same workers with other forms of government assistance.
This response was written by Carolyn R. Mullally, a member of the Champaign County League of Women Voters and also St. Mary Catholic Church, both of which support the local endeavor for a Living Wage. She is also a member of the Champaign County Living Wage Association. |
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