Join NASW in the Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage: Phase II

A fair minimum wage is central to the struggle for economic and social justice.

• Individuals who work full-time, year-round should not have to raise their families in poverty.
• It should not be better to be unemployed in at least 10 other industrialized countries than to be fully employed in the United States.
• Parents forced off the welfare rolls into minimum wage jobs should have a real chance to become "self-sufficient."

Therefore, NASW is among the organizations spearheading an effort led by Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. David E. Bonior (D-MI) to begin to provide a basic living wage for all who work. On January 27, 1998, Senator Kennedy and Representative Bonior introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 1998 (S. 1573/H.R. 3100). The legislation would increase the minimum wage by $.50 in 1998, 1999, and 2000 and in subsequent years, index it to inflation. Currently, the minimum wage is $5.15 an hour.

Thanks to your efforts in Phase I of the Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage, when the legislation was introduced, the Senate bill had eight cosponsors and the House bill had 85 cosponsors (just 15 short of our initial goal). And President Clinton included support for increasing the minimum wage in his State of the Union address. In Phase II, we need to push hard for additional cosponsors to build the momentum. If your Members of Congress are among the cosponsors, thank them. If they are not, please contact them and urge them to become cosponsors. Tools to assist you in your efforts follow.

California: Boxer
Illinois: Moseley-Braun
Iowa: Harkin
Maryland: Mikulski
Massachusetts: Kennedy (sponsor), Kerry
Minnesota: Wellstone
New Jersey: Lautenberg, Torricelli

House Cosponsors (by state)

Alabama: Hilliard
California: Matsui, Woolsey, Miller, Pelosi, Dellums, Lantos, Stark, Lofgren, Berman, Waxman, Becerra, Martinez, Roybal-Allard, Torres, Waters, Millender-McDonald, Brown, Filner
Connecticut: Kennelly, Gejdenson, DeLauro
District of Columbia: Norton
Florida: Meek, Deutsch, Hastings
Georgia: McKinney, Lewis
Hawaii: Mink
Illinois: Rush, Jackson, Gutierrez, Blagojevich, Davis, Yates, Evans, Poshard
Maryland: Wynn, Cummings
Massachusetts: Olver, Neal, McGovern, Frank, Meehan, Tierney, Markey, Kennedy, Moakley, Delahunt
Michigan: Kildee, Bonior (sponsor), Conyers, Kilpatrick
Minnesota: Vento, Sabo
Mississippi: Thompson
Missouri: Clay, Gephardt
New Jersey: Pallone, Payne
New York: Ackerman, Manton, Nadler, Schumer, Towns, Owens, Velaquez, Serrano, Engel, Lowey, Hinchey, Slaughter, LaFalce
North Carolina: Hefner
Ohio: Kaptur, Kucinich, Stokes, Brown, Sawyer
Oregon: Furse, DeFazio
Pennsylvania: Fattah, Klink, Coyne
South Carolina: Clyburn
Texas: Jackson-Lee, Green, Johnson
Vermont: Sanders
Virginia: Scott
Washington: McDermott
West Virginia: Rahall

By Telephone. Call the Capitol Switchboard and ask for your Member’s office.

For Senators the number is: 202-224-3121.

For Representatives: 202-225-3121.

Or find direct line numbers (as well as fax numbers and District office telephone numbers) through NASW’s website: ‘www.naswdc.org’. Click on "Links," then "Government & Advocacy," then "Contacting Congress."

When you call, ask to speak to the staff person handling the minimum wage issue. If staff is unavailable, leave a message on voice mail or with the receptionist urging the Member to cosponsor the Fair Minimum Wage Act.

Address for all Senators

The Honorable (first name, last name)
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator (last name):

Address for all Representatives

The Honorable (first name, last name)
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative (last name):

By E-mail. Congressional offices, which have e-mail addresses, can be accessed through NASW’s website: ‘www.naswdc.org’. Click on "Links," then "Government & Advocacy," and then "Contacting Congress."

As a professional social worker knowledgeable about the economic struggles faced by low-wage workers (or on behalf of the (number) members of the (state) Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers), I urge Senator (last name) or Representative (last name) to cosponsor the Fair Minimum Wage Act. Families headed by minimum wage workers who work full-time, full-year should not live below the federal poverty level, as they do now. The massive loss of jobs predicted prior to the last minimum wage increase failed to materialize. Instead, millions of workers and their families benefited. I hope the Senator (or Representative) will sign onto the bill and work to ensure that people who work hard, day in and day out, are fairly compensated.

Date

The Honorable (first name, last name)
United States Senate (or U.S. House of Representatives)
Washington, DC 20510 (or 20515)

Dear Senator (last name) (or Representative [last name]):

As a professional social worker (or on behalf of the (number) members of the (state) Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers), I urge Senator (last name) or Representative (last name) to join the effort to increase the federal minimum wage and become a cosponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act. Social workers have a long and accomplished history in working for systemic changes to achieve social, political, and economic justice and are supporting an increase in the minimum wage as part of that proud legacy.

The bill would increase the minimum wage by 50 cents in 1998, 1999, and 2000 and index it to inflation in subsequent years. The last increase in the minimum wage, to $5.15 an hour on September 1, 1996, benefited over 10 million workers and failed to result in increased unemployment as opponents had predicted. But even at $5.15 a hour, an employee working full-time, full-year still earns $2,600 below the federal poverty level for a family of three.

The year of 1998 is an ideal time to build on last year’s increase. The economy remains strong, but its benefits are not being distributed fairly. The rich are getting richer, but the poor are getting poorer. From 1979-1995 real family income increased by 26 percent for earners in the top 20 percent, but fell by nine percent for earners in the bottom 20 percent. As a result, more adults and families are being forced to seek emergency assistance. A 1997 survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found an average increase of 16 percent in requests for emergency food assistance. The primary reason cited for the increase is low-paying jobs. A full 38 percent of adults requesting assistance were employed.

As professional social workers, we believe that full-time, full-year workers earning the minimum wage should not be forced to raise their families in poverty. We believe welfare recipients who make the transition into minimum wage jobs should have a real chance to become "self-sufficient." We hope you will sign onto the bill and join the effort to ensure economic justice for this country’s working men and women and their families.

Sincerely,

Date

The Honorable (first name, last name)
United States Senate (or U.S. House of Representatives)
Washington, DC 20510 (or 20515)

Dear Senator (last name) (or Representative [last name]):

As a professional social worker (or on behalf of the (number) members of the (state) Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers), thank you for joining the effort to increase the federal minimum wage by becoming a cosponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act. As you know, social workers have a long and accomplished history in working for systemic changes to achieve social, political, and economic justice and are supporting an increase in the minimum wage as part of that proud legacy.

As professional social workers, we believe that full-time, full-year workers earning the minimum wage should not be forced to raise their families in poverty. We believe welfare recipients who make the transition into minimum wage jobs should have a real chance to become "self-sufficient." We appreciate your leadership in helping to ensure economic justice for this country’s working men and women and their families.

Sincerely,

The President said he supported raising the minimum wage in the State of the Union speech.

The country supports an increase in the minimum wage.

• A January 21, 1998 Washington Post-ABC poll found that 76 percent of Americans support an increase in the minimum wage.
• A Peter Hart Research poll early this year found that 77 percent of Americans support the proposed three-year, $1.50 increase.
• These numbers are actually higher than they were in 1994 and 1995 when the last campaign began.

The bill is good policy -- it allows Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder to share in the extraordinary prosperity the country has experienced.

Low-wage workers need a raise. Nationwide, soup kitchens, food pantries and homeless shelter are increasingly serving the working poor -- not just the unemployed. According to U.S. Conference of Mayors study:

• In 1996, 38 percent of those seeking emergency food aid held jobs -- up from 23 percent in 1994.
• Low-paying jobs are the most-frequently cited cause of hunger -- officials in 67 percent of cities cited this factor.

A full-time minimum wage earner earns $10,712 a year -- $2,600 below the poverty level for a family of three.

If there are no additional increases, by the year 2000 the real value of the minimum wage will be only $4.66 -- almost as low as it was when the 1996 increase was enacted.

Raising the minimum wage is a women's issue, a labor issue, a children's issue, a civil rights issue. Of the 12 million workers who will benefit from this increase:

• 60 percent are women.
• 74 percent are adults.
• 40 percent are the sole breadwinners in their families.
• 50 percent work full-time.
• 82 percent work at least 20 hours a week.
• 15 percent are African-American.
• 14 percent are Latino.

Modest increases in the minimum wage do not cause job loss for teenagers, adults, men, women, African-Americans, Latinos or anyone else.

• A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute documents that "the sky hasn't fallen" as a result of the last increase.
• And Princeton economists David Card and Alan Krueger recently re-analyzed their data on New Jersey's minimum wage increase in 1992. The new analysis confirms their earlier findings -- employment in fast-food restaurants grew at least as quickly in New Jersey as in neighboring Pennsylvania, where the minimum wage stayed level during the same period. They also found that the higher wages benefited employers, too: turnover expenses were reduced and employers could get higher productivity out of the higher-paid, better-motivated and more stable workers.