Arkansas

Contact: Rev. Steve Copley

Chair of the Board

Let Justice Roll

P.O. Box 2441

Little Rock, AR 72203

Email: scopley@letjusticeroll.org

Phone: 501-626-9220

Minimum Wage Same for Four Years

Institute for Public Accuracy, Jul 24 2013

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the last increase in the federal minimum wage, on July 24, 2009. ... Rev. Stephen Copley, Director of the Arkansas Interfaith Alliance and chair of the national nonpartisan Let Justice Roll Living Wage Coalition said: “It is immoral that the minimum wage is worth less, adjusted for inflation, than the over $10 value it had in 1968, the year the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in Memphis while fighting for living wages. We cannot wait another year.

Arkansas Minister: Poor Need Higher Minimum Wage

By Austin Robertson
Associated Press, Sep 3 2012

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The minister who heads the Arkansas Interfaith Alliance says concern for the poor should prompt Congress to pass an increase in the minimum wage.

The Rev. Stephen Copley says the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour barely covers food and shelter in much of the country, and drives many hardworking men and women to food banks and homeless shelters.

He says, "A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it."

Labor Day: Minimum Wage

Institute for Public Accuracy, Sep 3 2012

Rev. Stephen Copley,  Director of the Arkansas Interfaith Alliance and chairman of the national nonpartisan Let Justice Roll Living Wage Coalition, Copley said: “Our motto at Let Justice Roll is ‘A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.’ Today’s minimum wage is a poverty wage, not a living wage. At $7.25 an hour, just $15,080 a year, the minimum wage is set so low that growing numbers of hardworking men and women turn to food banks and homeless shelters to try and fill the gaping hole in their wages.

Starting pay is too low

Letter to the Editor
By Ana Aguayo
Springdale, AR
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Aug 8 2009

As a community organization dedicated to fighting for workers' rights and social justice, we at the Northwest Arkansas Workers Justice Center strongly support the struggle of low-wage income workers living in poverty.

We join Let Justice Roll, a nonpartisan coalition of more than 100 faith, community, labor and business organizations in leading state and national campaigns to increase the minimum wage closer to a living wage.

A bigger slice of the pie

Letter to the Editor
By Bradford Bowen
Fayetteville
Northwest Arkansas Times, Jul 30 2009

The July 24 raise in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour, the last of three such increases enacted by Congress in 2007, will help millions of workers cope with the rising price of food, housing and other basic items. Extra earnings of up to $28 per week could help pay for health care or school supplies, but it won't get many people out of poverty.

It is a blight on our society that people who work hard (many times even two or more jobs) cannot have a standard of living that enables them to live above the poverty level and to be able to pay their bills.

LJR Board Chair Steve Copley Honored as Peace and Justice Hero

Arkansas Peace, Justice and Environment Project, Jun 29 2009

6th Annual Arkansas Peace & Justice Heroes Banquet
Sponsored by: Omni Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology, July 11, 5:30 pm, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 224 North East Street, Fayetteville, AR

Minimum wage jumps Thursday in Missouri

By Kelsey Ryan
Joplin Globe, Dec 30 2008

Though welcomed by some, a 40-cent increase in the minimum wage that takes effect Thursday in Missouri couldn’t have come at a worse time for some businesses.

Missouri’s minimum wage goes from $6.65 to $7.05 an hour as a result of state law; it will be followed by a jump to $7.25 in July as a result of federal legislation.