Organization
for Women
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National
Organization for Women |
MINIMUM WAGE |
In the past year something that we usually don’t have to face in the United States hit us with the full force of an unprecedented storm. Katrina and Rita battered us with the homes, transportation, and faces of women, men and children living in poverty.
These families are part of the number of people in poverty that has increased by 4.3 million since President Bush took office. We have nearly 36 million people living in poverty, including 13 million children. People in poverty aren’t always the unemployed, among full-time, year-round workers poverty has doubled since the late 1970s-from about 1.3 million then to more than 2.6 million.
As you watched TV and scanned the Internet you would have heard individual stories of poor people who lost what little they had and how they supported themselves. A key part of their poverty was the problems with employment they faced. Problems with unreliable transportation and childcare responsibilities can be detrimental to employment possibilities as well as low minimum wage.
These employment problems are not just a Louisiana, Texas, or Florida problem but also a concern for Ohio.
Minimum wage employees working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, earn $10,700 a year, $5,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Since the last minimum wage increase in 1997, the value has eroded by more than 15 percent.
Addressing minimum wage in Ohio is S.B. 11, sponsored by Senator C.J. Prentiss. S.B. 11 would revised the Ohio minimum wage to $6.15/hour beginning January 1, 2006 and raise it to $7.15/hour beginning on January 1, 2007. In future years it would require an annual adjustment of the minimum wage each year to be based on the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers or a successor index calculated by the United States Department of Labor.
Since S.B. 11 was introduced in January of 2005, it has been assigned to the Ways and Means and Economic Development Senate Committee. This bill needs to be opened to full debate in the senate committee. Ask Senator Ron Amstutz, Committee Chair, for S.B. 11 to be placed on the committee agenda and a vote to be taken to send the bill to the floor of the Senate. Senator Ron Amstutz can be reached by calling 614-466-7505, emailing
sd22@mailr.sen.state.oh.us or writing Senate Bldg., Rm. 140, Columbus, OH 43215.
If you would like more information from the sponsor of S.B. 11 contact Senator C.J. Prentiss, call 614-466-4857, email:
Prentiss@maild.sen.state.oh.us
or write: Statehouse, Rm. #303, Columbus, OH 43215.
For a copy of S.B. 11 visit
On the Federal level, we know how difficult it is for Congress to adjust the minimum wage. The Universal Living Wage coalition is making the connection between homelessness and minimum wage. With 3.5 million minimum wage workers experiencing homelessness this year alone, this coalition is interested in looking at indexing the minimum wage to the local cost of housing throughout the United States.
If you are looking for a true economic stimulus package, once a stabilizing housing wage is in the pocket of all 10.1 million minimum wage workers, the result will be to stimulate the local housing construction industry all across America. For more information on this proposed program visit www.UniversalLivingWage.org or contact the National Chairman, Richard Troxell at 512-796-4366.
If you need more information and/or support with any legislation contact Ohio National Organization for Women (NOW), PO Box 8134, Columbus, OH 43201 ohionow@ohionow.org