Press Releases

Wyandotte County Commissioners vote to raise the minimum wage!

Jul 24 2008

KCK becomes the first city in Kansas to raise the minimum wage above the state's lowest-in-the nation minimum wage of $2.65 an hour.

Today, the federal minimum wage rose to $6.55, nearly four dollars above the Kansas minimum wage of $2.65 an hour. Fittingly, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County chose today as the occasion to raise the local minimum wage rate to the federal level. From today forward, workers in Kansas City, Kansas, will be guaranteed a minimum pay rate nearly two-and-a-half times as high as the state minimum wage.

This is a major success – and we owe this success to the vision of the Wyandotte County Commissioners....

National Faith-Community Alliance Launches Campaign to End Poverty Wages

Jul 22 2008

Let Justice Roll Urges Faith Leaders to Endorse Call for $10 in 2010

Washington, DC, - On Thursday, July 24, the federal minimum wage will increase from $5.85 to $6.55 an hour, providing a much-needed but inadequate boost to workers and our economy. The $6.55 minimum wage will still leave workers with less buying power than they had in 1997 at the start of the longest period in history without a raise. Even after the minimum wage rises to $7.25 in July 2009, it will be far below the minimum wage of 1968, which is worth $9.86 now....

Minimum Wage 40% Less On 40th Anniversary Of Dr. King's Final Days In Memphis

Mar 2 2008

Faith Leaders Call for Living Wage at Interfaith Gathering, March 13th

Forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers making poverty wages, he would be shocked to see millions of Americans making poverty wages today. Faith leaders from around the country will gather in Memphis, TN, on March 13 to continue Dr. King's work for living wages for all workers with an event organized by the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign and the Mid-South Interfaith Network for Economic Justice.

Dr. King told striking sanitation workers in Memphis on March 18...

Faith leaders call for living wage on 40th anniversary of Dr. King's work in Memphis

Feb 26 2008

Interfaith Gathering in Memphis, March 13th, with National and Local Speakers

MEMPHIS -- Forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers making poverty wages, faith leaders from around the country will gather to demand a living wage for all workers. The interfaith service will be held at 7:00 pm, Thursday, March 13, at the historic Centenary United Methodist Church, which organized support in 1968 for the Memphis sanitation workers. Centenary UMC's former pastor, Rev. James Lawson, who worked with Dr. King, has been invited to be the keynote speaker.

Co-convened by the Let Justice Roll...

Statement by Rev. Sherry of the Let Justice Roll Campaign at senate minimum wage press conference

Nov 16 2007

"Minimum wage was the foremost values issue of the 2006 election, bringing people together across all lines. It is immoral that workers who care for children, the ill and the elderly struggle to care for their own families. A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.

"It is fitting that we are rededicating ourselves to a higher federal minimum wage just days after Monday's groundbreaking for the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial.

"As visitors enter the King Memorial, they will see carved...

Statement by Rev. Sherry of the Let Justice Roll Campaign at senate minimum wage press conference

Nov 16 2007

"It is fitting that we are rededicating ourselves to a higher federal minimum wage just days after Monday's groundbreaking for the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial.

"As visitors enter the King Memorial, they will see carved...

At July 24 Capitol Hill Rally Let Justice roll leader calls for making minimum wage a living wage

Jul 24 2007

Let Justice Roll leader Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry joins Congressional and grassroots leaders in a Capitol Hill Rally to celebrate the first minimum wage raise in ten years. Rev Sherry's statement appears below

WHEN: 1:30 pm EST, July 24
WHERE: Upper Senate Park, 1st and Delaware Avenues, NW, Washington, DC

STATEMENT BY REV. PAUL SHERRY

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Wage on: For Let Justice Roll, July 24 minimum wage hike is just step toward living wage

Jul 16 2007

The grassroots momentum to eliminate poverty wages will be energized, not quelled, by next week's federal minimum wage increase to $5.85 an hour.

Let Justice Roll, a national ninety-organization living wage coalition, will continue to organize campaigns to raise federal and state minimum wages, particularly in the South and Midwest where poverty-wage jobs are concentrated.

Let Justice Roll continues organizing campaigns in Georgia, Tennessee, Kansas, Oklahoma and Cuyahoga County, Ohio to enact higher state...

Minimum wage raise long overdue says Let Justice Roll

May 25 2007

Washington, DC -- Our nation's poorest workers will finally be getting a much-needed boost when the minimum wage goes up in July. Congress and the White House should have done what 33 states and the District of Columbia did earlier, and raise the minimum wage above $5.15 without holding it hostage to war and tax cuts.

Raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over 26 months will put much-needed dollars in the hands of workers for whom every dollar counts in the struggle to pay rent, food, healthcare and other necessities. After a decade without a raise,...

Let Justice Roll hails new state victories, tell Congress to heed will of people and raise minimum wage now

May 9 2007

Washington, DC -- As the federal minimum wage remains stuck at a miserly $5.15 an hour, momentum continues to build in the states. Last week, New Hampshire joined Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky and New Mexico in enacting legislation since the Nov. election to raise minimum wages. Let Justice Roll, a nonpartisan coalition of more than 90 faith and community organizations, is calling on Congress to represent their constituents and raise the federal minimum wage now.

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