We Believe Supports Placing Minimum Wage Raise on November Ballot

We Believe Members Will Be Speaking and Available For Comment at 10:30 AM Tomorrow at the Ohio Statehouse As Signatures in Support of the Initiative Are Delivered to the Secretary of State.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Last week, due to partisan wrangling in Washington, DC, the U.S. Senate once again failed to pass a federal minimum wage increase. It is now more critical than ever that we act here in Ohio to raise the minimum wage above the immoral federal level at which is has languished for almost a decade.

Work has always been a central part of American culture. We believe that work is more than just a job: it is reflection of our human dignity and a way to contribute to the common good. We believe that work is not only the way citizens meet their material needs to support their families and meet their community obligations, but also the way by which workers provide for themselves and their families with dignity. Although the minimum wage is not a living wage, we believe that the minimum wage must be raised to help restore its purchasing power, not just for goods and services, but for the self-esteem and self worth it affords the worker.

We Believe Ohio supports the effort by Ohioans for a Fair Minimum Wage to place an initiative on the November ballot to increase the minimum wage to $6.85.

We believe that charity is not a substitute for justice. We believe that our faith compels us to work for justice. We believe that it is an injustice that a minimum wage worker makes about $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. We believe that it is immoral for our legislators to continue to give themselves a cost of living raise year after year, while the minimum wage is kept so low that working families cannot afford health insurance, child care, college tuition and more often that not have to rely on food banks instead of the grocery store.

Members of We Believe Ohio will be present and available for comment tomorrow morning as signatures in support of placing the minimum wage increase initiative on the November ballot are delivered to the Office of the Secretary of State. Rev. Eric Brown, pastor of Woodland Christian Church, we be speaking at the Ohio Statehouse at 10:30 tomorrow, Tuesday, August 8.

CONTACT: Heather Parsons (614) 975-2894