When Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, the world stopped for a moment. Shaken, confused but searching for a way to continue the fight, civil rights leaders decided to continue King's Poor People's Campaign by building a tent city in the National Mall in Washington DC. People from around the country converged on the nation's capital to bear communal witness to the ravages of poverty and homelessness. They called it "Resurrection City," a parable of a truly loving, equal, and just community.
King is remembered as a civil rights leader, but he died fighting for a living wage for sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. On March 18, 1968, just weeks before he was killed, King proclaimed in a speech to the striking workers, "You are reminding, not only Memphis, but ... the nation that it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages."
What would King say about our current economic crisis, and the need for a moral, humanitarian response? In 1968 when the average wage in America was $3.02 an hour, sanitation workers earned just half that at $1.65 an hour. Forty-two years later, with the average wage at $18.63 an hour, a quarter of retail workers are earning starvation wages of $8 an hour or less and almost half are earning under $10 an hour. The fact that low wage workers continue to lose ground is igniting the fires of moral outrage in the hearts and souls of a growing group of Americans who are joining the movement for a living wage.
New Yorkers face an economic crisis. Many have lost jobs, more are underemployed, and even more are working for wages that they can't live on. Working all day without earning enough to pay the bills breaks the spirit and weakens our communities, yet the City continues to support and do business with developers who do just that.
We need a compensation system that treats all with dignity and respect. Sanitation workers in Memphis held up placards that read, "I am a Man," affirming a deep personal dignity that's not disposable. King's challenge was prescient: "One day our society will come to respect the sanitation worker if it is to survive. For the person who picks up our garbage, in the final analysis, is as significant as the physician. All labor has worth." Our common humanity trumps our job status and fuels our fight for economic justice.
Los Angeles has a policy requiring all city development projects to pay a living wage. The Queens Center Mall, one of the most profitable in America, is receiving more than $100 million in taxpayer subsidies yet the majority of workers are earning at or near the minimum wage. It's time for New York to lead the nation through establishing a living wage.
New York City is a rich city. We can lead the way to King's dream. Religious and community leaders call on Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council to pass a living wage of $10 an hour plus benefits for all city-subsidized projects.
This year, as the anniversary of Dr. King's death falls on Easter Sunday, let us work to carry on his prophetic legacy in the spirit of resurrection. Let's make New York City the next Resurrection City.
Pablo Eisenberg: ACORN: Done in by its Friends
Most damaging to ACORN's cause was the reluctance, and indeed failure, of progressive nonprofit groups, large liberal foundations and Democrat politicians to come to Acorn's support and assistance.
Today, 12 council members are forming the NY City Council Progressive Caucus. Bloomberg has done little to confront inequality, preferring instead a trickle-down economic approach.
Adele Scheele: Career Coaching 101
Here's what to expect from working with a career coach, and how you can find a good career coach.
Sarita Gupta: Students and Workers Face Shared Crisis
Students are not only finding it harder to afford an education, but they are also finding it harder to find a jobs once they graduate.
Living wage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What Is a Living Wage? - New York Times
A business owner has a worker who is not the best. He is sort of rude to the customers and forgets some of the things he is asked to do. Plus he shows up late half the time. But he adds some value to the business. He is pretty good at fixing broken things around the office and does an adequate job when he sets his mind to it. The owner thinks he is worth the $6/hr that he pays him.
Then the government raises the minimum wage to $10/hr. The business owner says to the man, 'Sorry you are fired. I would like to keep you but you are not worth $10/hr to me."
"Please don't fire me. I like this job and you are really good about looking the other way when I show up late."
"I can't pay you $10/hr"
"Well, then just pay me $6/hr"
"Wish I could but the government says I can't... sorry."
[story over]
What happened in this story? The government refused to allow an arrangement that both men wanted. This didn't benefit the owner and it didn't benefit the worker. It was just bad.
This is, on a micro level, something that happens on the macro level every time the government messes with the market wage. People are always paid what they are worth to the business. If the government insists that you can't pay them what they are worth (but have to pay something more than they are worth) than someone is either getting paid more than they are worth (in the case of the owner that bites the bullet and pays it) or less than they are worth (in the case of the owner who lets people go).
http://religionannarbor.wordpress.com/
Funny, he never mentioned unions to me again.
It's no different than the idea of the minimum wage worker who hates progressives who got him the minimum wage. There is no reason to shoot for the minimum. Any worker worth his salt would prefer to be paid what he is worth than what some knuckle head who likes to organize believes is the least that an man should be paid.