Economic
Human Rights In Champaign County: A Living Wage
by Belden Fields
The expression 'living wage', and the
concept that underlies it, goes back at least as far
as Rerum Novarum, the encyclical issued by Pope Leo
XIII on May 5, 1891. The moral imperative that it
expresses, so important to progressive social Catholicism
in the first half of the twentieth century, made its
way after the Second World War into the human rights
documents issued under the auspices of the United
Nations. Article 23, Paragraph 3 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the UN General
Assembly in 1948 reads, "Everyone who works has
the right to just and favorable remuneration, insuring
for himself and his family an existence worthy of
human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by
other means of social protection." The 1966 International
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
calls in Article 7 for workers' entitlement to "fair
wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value"
and "a decent living for themselves and their
families."
Unfortunately, while the Roosevelt and
Truman administrations were among the strongest proponents
of such economic rights, and while President Jimmy
Carter signed the 1966 Covenant, the US Senate has
never ratified it. This is but one of many instances
in which the US government stands outside the international
consensus on what constitutes human rights. Of course,
the 'Reagan Revolution' has made matters even worse.
The only economic (as opposed to political and civic)
rights which the US government now promotes around
the world are the rights pertaining to private property;
the only collective (as opposed to individual) rights
it seems to recognize are those of corporations, collectivities
which claim such rights under the fiction of being
individual 'legal persons'. According to the logic,
this corporate property right is the only legitimate
collective economic right because it is consistent
with the market rules that protect corporate interests.
Never mind the circularity of the argument. What is
important is that this conception of economic rights
does nothing to protect the economic rights or well-being
of those who do the grunt work for the corporations.
Thus corporate rights as they are now asserted are
at war with the economic rights of workers, which
rights have since the end of World War II been part
of the international consensus on human rights.
Worse yet, it is not just corporations
who devalue their workers. The reason that there is
a living wage movement in the United States is because
both the private and the public sector violate the
human rights of their workers by paying them wages
below the poverty line. It is inconceivable, in this
nation of unprecedented wealth, that our taxpayer
dollars can be used by governmental entities to pay
their own employees wages insufficient to sustain
themselves and their families.
This is what stimulated the creation
of the Champaign County Living Wage Association, one
of many that have grown up in the United States to
push for policies whereby governmental or public tax-supported
units pay their workers a living wage and oblige private
businesses that receive government benefits or contracts
to do the same.
The Living Wage Association defines
a living wage as what a family of four would need
to remain right at what the federal government determines
to be the poverty level plus health care benefits,
considered a "necessary...means of social protection"
in the words of the 1948 UN Declaration .
The poverty level calculated by the
government changes from year to year. For a family
of four, it is now $8.49 per hour for a 40-hour work
week. This is generally conceded to be very low, especially
given the high cost of housing. Locally, the problem
of government employees earning wages below the poverty
line is particularly serious at the county level.
Another problem is that some of our governmental units
contract out work to private employers who pay low
wages and do not offer health benefits. The living
wage movement also advocates an end to the contracting-out
technique as a means to avoid paying a decent and
rightful wage for public services.
The Champaign County Living Wage Association,
a coalition of over forty secular and religious community
organizations, has been preparing the groundwork for
about four years now. It has collected data, held
forums, spoken to business people, and sent speakers
out to educate the community and solicit feedback.
That educational campaign has been highly successful,
as indicated by the number of organizations who have
joined the effort. Moreover, two local public bodies,
the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District and the
Champaign County Housing Authority, have recently
enacted living wage policies. The Living Wage Association
is now prepared to carry this human rights issue to
the county board and to the Champaign and Urbana city
councils .
As we celebrate another Labor Day, it
is appropriate to reflect on the fact that human rights
are not just abstractions discussed in the UN and
written into international documents. They are a set
of social practices which require political struggle
and action on the part of real people to become reality.
The Champaign County Living Wage Association has launchedsuch
a struggle in our own community, and it is asking
for your assistance. You can help by urging an organization
to which you belong to join the Association; by letting
your representatives on thecounty board and city councils
know that you want their workers' rights respected;
and by coming to the meetings of these public bodies
when the issue is discussed and voted on.
The Champaign County Living Wage Association
invites people to visit its web site at www.prairienet.org/livingwage/.
It can also be contacted by mail and phone at
PO Box 953, Urbana 61803; 344-5609.
