Justice:

Living Wage

In most communities, the minimum wage is insufficient to provide working families with basic necessities. These communities need a living wage that can provide for housing, health care, food, and other baseline expenses. ACORN's Living Wage Campaign Resource Center is at the forefront of the fight for a living wage:

"In short, living wage campaigns seek to pass local ordinances requiring private businesses that benefit from public money to pay their workers a living wage. Commonly, the ordinances cover employers who hold large city or county service contracts or receive substantial financial assistance from the city in the form of grants, loans, bond financing, tax abatements, or other economic development subsidies.

The concept behind any living wage campaign is simple: Our limited public dollars should not be subsidizing poverty-wage work. When subsidized employers are allowed to pay their workers less than a living wage, tax payers end up footing a double bill: the initial subsidy and then the food stamps, emergency medical, housing and other social services low wage workers may require to support themselves and their families even minimally. Public dollars should be leveraged for the public good -- reserved for those private sector employers who demonstrate a commitment to providing decent, family-supporting jobs in our local communities."

- Living Wage Campaign Resource Center [source]

For more information on this issue, visit the Living Wage Campaign Resource Center on the Internet.