We are pleased to announce that our Committee has successfully completed the campaign to obtain the required 5,000+ signatures of registered voters. These voters want the Greensboro City Council to increase the minimum wage in Greensboro to $9.36 per hour. We will deliver our petition signatures to the Board of Elections at 12:30 PM, November 30, 2007. The campaign to gain approval of our initiative will began immediately thereafter on the front steps of the old courthouse.
In the richest society in human history the failure to pay just wages is not an economic issue. Wages are a moral issue. Tens of thousands of our neighbors in Greensboro are suffering from poverty wages. It is time to correct this injustice. The minimum wage is a floor for wages. It is the point where society says no to lower wages. To pay a lower wage is wrong. It is immoral just as child labor is immoral. People are not machines. They must have enough to sustain themselves.
The Federal Government’s own research shows that the minimum wage would need to be $9.58 per/hr to equal its purchasing power in 1968. Business can afford to pay its workers at least as much as they were paid 38 years ago. Inflation has hidden actual pay cuts for millions of hard working Americans. Minimum wage workers in 1968 could buy 35% more food, clothing and shelter than the minimum wage workers of today.
The trend towards paying working people less is accelerating. On October 23, 2006 the News & Record reported that the real inflation adjusted median household income in Greensboro fell from $46,459 to $36,733 over the last five years. The typical Greensboro family income has dropped 21%.
The Golden Rule - the ethics of reciprocity - is our most universal moral value. It is a fundamental moral principal in all of the world’s major religions. If I want decent pay for myself, I should want it for my neighbor.
We say it is wrong to pay people a minimum wage that is not enough for them to live on. What do you think?
Citizen groups have already made this happen in other cities. The minimum wage for all workers in San Francisco is $9.14 per/hr and in Santa Fe, New Mexico it is $9.50 per/hr. It is past time for this conversation to start in Greensboro. If you want to help call us at 336-681-2890.
1 Comments:
"...I'd like to make note that Mayor Johnson and District 2 Representative Wells both signed the very copy of the petition that I circulated. Wells signed the petition in the parking lot of the Food Lion Grocery on East Market Street and Mayor Johnson signed the petition at a dinner of the local League of Women Voters at the church on Greene Street. Let's see if either of them bring the issue to the table."
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