Local activists campaign for 'living wage'

Minimum wage meeting draws small crowd

By NATASHA ALTAMIRANO

Date published: 8/3/2006

By NATASHA ALTAMIRANO As lawmakers on Capitol Hill debate legislation to increase the federal minimum wage, a grass-roots organization is pushing for an hourly wage increase at the state level.

A small but vocal group met at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library last night to campaign for Virginia's lowest-paid workers.

It was the first of what the nonprofit Virginia Organizing Project hopes will be many local events to bolster support for an increase in the state's minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, the same as the federal minimum wage.

"It makes no sense for working people to live in poverty," said VOP intern Richael Faithful, who organized the meeting with VOP staff member Cathy Woodson and Chris Fink, coordinator of the Fredericksburg branch of the Virginia Green Party.

VOP organizes support for issues such as an increased minimum wage and an end to racial profiling.

The federal hourly minimum wage was raised from $4.75 to $5.15 in 1997.

In inflation-adjusted terms, the minimum wage is at its lowest level since 1955, according to economists at the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.

That's hardly enough for a single adult to support him or herself, let alone a family, higher-wage advocates say.

"Even $9 an hour doesn't cut it, but when you raise the floor, it does impact other industries," said the 21-year-old Faithful, a rising senior at the College of William & Mary.

Faithful said that, according to data from the Virginia Employment Commission, Fredericksburg-area industries with the most workers--including education, retail, restaurant and health services--paid an average hourly wage of $6.15.

Not quite minimum wage, but not enough to live on, either. That raises another issue: whether local, state or federal governments should impose a so-called living wage--enough to meet the cost of living in a given area.

Ellyn Hartzler, a homelessness prevention paralegal for Rappahannock Legal Services, said a minimum wage isn't enough.

"The word 'minimum'--it minimizes a great part of our community," said Hartzler, one of six people who attended last night's meeting.

Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have set hourly minimum wages above the federal level, Faithful said.

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Date published: 8/3/2006