Massachusetts

Contact: Ariel Jacobson

Associate for Economic Justice

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

689 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02139

Email: ajacobson@uusc.org

Phone: 617-868-6600

UUSC10in2010

Wright to head area church council

By Janette Boulay
Sun Chronicle, Jan 16 2010

Attleboro - Kathleen Wright will take over the reins of the Attleboro Area Council of Churches later this month. She was unanimously elected executive director earlier this month by the board of directors, filling the position held for the past 10 years by Dorothy Embree, who recently retired.

Northampton city council backs 'living wage'

By Chad Cain
Daily Hampshire Gazette, Nov 20 2009

NORTHAMPTON - A young girl named Tatiana said it best Thursday night: "Everybody deserves a chance."

And as it did 11 years ago, the City Council Thursday threw its support behind a measure that encourages business owners to offer that chance and pay their employees a living wage.

The nonbinding resolution, which passed unanimously, defines a living wage as $11.90 an hour, or enough for an individual to meet basic needs such as housing, transportation, food and health care. The state's minimum wage is $8 an hour for full-time work.

Northampton City Council to vote on "living wage" resolution

By Fred Contrada
masslive.com, Nov 18 2009

NORTHAMPTON - The City Council will take up a resolution calling for local employers to pay their workers a living wage when it meets tonight.

Put forward by the Northampton Living Wage Coalition and sponsored by the majority of councilors, Mayor Mary Clare Higgins and the city's Human Rights Commission, the resolution recognizes a living wage as a human right.

"For people earning less than a living wage, it's crisis time," said Katherine Callaghan, a lawyer with Western Massachusetts legal Services and a member of the coalition's steering committee.

Data back up push for increase

Letter to the Editor
By Holly Sklar
Boston, MA
Boston Globe, Jul 14 2009

Jeff Jacoby (“Minimum-wage folly,’’ Op-ed, July 8) correctly quoted me as saying that minimum wage increases do not increase unemployment, but he failed to mention the empirical research I’ve summarized on the Let Justice Roll website to back that up.

Business owners support living wage

Letter to the Editor
By Laury Hammel
Wayland, MA
Boston Globe, Jul 14 2009

IN HIS critique of raising the minimum wage, Jeff Jacoby (Op-ed, July 8) cites economists who have predicted that jobs would be lost as a result of such an increase. He’s certainly not talking to owners of small or mid-sized businesses. We hire workers because there is work to be done, and we certainly do not lay someone off because we are “forced’’ to pay $7.25 an hour.

Show me who's getting rich on food donations

Letter to the Editor
By Michelle Burch
Director of food pantries for the Hebron Outreach Center
Sun Chronicle , Jun 2 2007

In reference to a letter from Fred Glover ("Show me where US citizens are starving," May 29) about U.S. Rep.

Great divide is growing

By Eileen McNamara
Globe Newspaper Company, Dec 3 2006

Half of a pittance is still a pittance, so please hold the parade for the part-time governor and full-time presidential aspirant who called in from the campaign trail to restore 50 percent of the promised pay raise he stole from underpaid human services workers in Massachusetts this festive season.

Governor Mitt Romney's quick reversal of millions of dollars in budget cuts on Friday exposed the deceit at the heart of his "emergency" action last month: There was no emergency.

For workers, a step toward managing

By Brenda J. Buote
Boston Globe, Aug 6 2006

Throughout Boston's northern suburbs, thousands of low-wage workers are celebrating news that they will soon see a boost in their paychecks, thanks to the Legislature's support last week of a minimum wage increase.

``My hope is that this pay raise will allow families to better their lives," said Karen Arsenault of Lynn, 36, a single mother who now earns $7.75 an hour as a housekeeper.