Martin Luther King Jr.
"There is nothing to prevent us from paying adequate wages to school teachers, social workers and other servants of the public... There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every [American] whether he be a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid or day laborer. There is nothing except shortsightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum—and livable—income for every American family.”

Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967
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Take Action in the States

New Campaigns Coming in January
Support the Fair Wages for New Yorkers campaign. Learn more.
Support Missouri Minimum Wage Increase. More.
Support the Raise Illinois campaign. More.

$10 Minimum Wage Campaign

Join us to break the cycle of too little, too late raises in the federal minimum wage.
Sign the Faith Leader Letter to Congress.
If you aren't a faith leader, please sign here.
Policy Points: Raise the Minimum Wage to $10.
Raising Minimum Wage in Hard Times.

Minimum wage jumps to $7.70 an hour today [in Ohio]

By Melissa Topey
Sandusky Register, Jan 1 2012

An estimated 347,000 workers in the state will see their paychecks increase slightly, according to Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit think tank.

In Gilded City, Living Wage Proposal Still Stirs Fears

By Michael Powell
New York Times, Dec 19 2011
Let’s slip into our Louis Vuitton shoes and take a gilded stroll through Manhattan.

We begin downtown, where Goldman Sachs, that exemplar of 0.001 percent America, reaps a multimillion-dollar tax break for its office tower, a deal accompanied by a multimillion-dollar landscaping clause. (You expected Lloyd C. Blankfein to yank weeds, maybe?)

In Midtown, we can draw money from an A.T.M. in the richly subsidized Bank of America tower, and skip over to Ernst & Young, where public tax dollars have underwritten a smashing skyscraper.

San Francisco to be first city in US history to set minimum wage over $10

By Joshua Sabatini
San Francisco Examiner, Dec 4 2011
San Francisco will become the first location in the nation to have a minimum wage higher than $10 after the hourly rate increases by 32 cents on Jan. 1. ...

Minimum wage in The City has increased each year automatically according to inflation since San Francisco voters in November 2003 approved the minimum wage law Proposition L. The measure was placed on the ballot through a signature-gathering campaign.

Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC) National Diners' Guide 2012

New National Diners’ Guide from Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC) spotlights wage, benefits and promotion practices of the 150 most popular restaurants. Lists "responsible restaurants where you can eat knowing that your server can afford to pay the rent and your cook isn’t working while sick."

Download the Diners’ Guide, the Consumer Toolkit for Spreading the Word, and Tip Cards about the Diners’ Guide to hand out to restaurant owners and workers when you go out to eat.
Dec 1 2011
ROC National Diners’ Guide 2012

2011 American Values Survey: Widespread support for raising minimum wage to $10

By Public Religion Research Institute
Nov 8 2011
Overall, two-thirds (67%) of Americans favor increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.00 an hour.

CEOs to Workers: More for me, less for you

Op-ed by Holly Sklar
McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Jul 22 2011

Big company CEOs got a 23 percent raise last year and corporate profits are at record highs. But the minimum wage has less buying power now than in 1956 – the year Elvis Presley first topped the charts, videotape was breakthrough technology and the Dow closed above 500 for the very first time.

Raising Minimum Wage Does Not Increase Unemployment

Jun 1 2011
Read the Research Summaries by the National Employment Law Project or the Full Studies by Arindrajit Dube, William Lester and Michael Reich and by Sylvia Allegretto, Arindrajit Dube and Michael Reich.

Local Living Wage Ordinances and Coverage

See chart with summary of local living wage ordinances and links. Total: 123 as of 12/6/10, not including repealed.
Dec 6 2010
Local Living Wage Ordinances and Coverage
National Employment Law Project

Raising the Minimum Wage in Hard Times

Updated / Summary
  • The federal minimum wage was enacted during the Great Depression to promote economic recovery.
  • The long-term fall in worker buying power is a key reason we are in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
  • Raising the minimum wage boosts consumer purchasing power and economic recovery.
  • Raising the minimum wage does not increase unemployment in good times or bad.
  • Raise the floor to lift the economy.
    • Holly Sklar
    Oct 27 2010
    application/pdf iconRaising Minimum Wage in Hard Times
    Let Justice Roll
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    With over 100 member organizations, the nonpartisan Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign is the leading faith, community, labor, business coalition committed to raising the minimum wage to a living wage at the state and federal level.