ARKANSAS'
WORKING FAMILIES GET LONG-OVERDUE RAISE
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Daniel Webster, 212-870-2252
Email: dwebster@ncccusa.org
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., April 10, 2006 --
Working families in Arkansas won a resounding
victory today when a $1.10 an hour increase in
the state minimum wage was signed into law by
Gov. Mike Huckabee. A community and faith coalition
led by a United Methodist pastor played a key
role in persuading lawmakers to enact the increase.
The Rev. Stephen Copley and the coalition he leads,
Give Arkansas A Rai$e Now, is
an affiliate of the Let Justice Roll Living
Wage Campaign, a national interfaith
and community initiative for a living wage.
The
new law overwhelmingly passed the 135-member Arkansas
Legislature with only three votes in opposition.
Arkansas is the first state in the South in which
the Legislature has voted to increase the state
minimum wage above the federal level of $5.15
an hour.
Effective
October 1 this year, the hourly minimum wage in
Arkansas will rise from $5.15 to $6.25-a 21 percent
increase. The new law raises the yearly earnings
of minimum wage workers in Arkansas by $2,288
a year. An estimated 127,000 working Arkansans
will benefit from the increase. Research shows
that 80 percent of those who will benefit are
age 20 or older and 53 percent work full-time.
An
increase in the minimum wage was long overdue.
In the eight and a half years since the last increase,
the minimum wage lost 17 percent of its purchasing
power and was at its lowest buying power in all
but one of the last 50 years.
The
increase came less than four months after Give
Arkansas A Rai$e Now announced a campaign to raise
the state minimum wage through an amendment to
the Arkansas Constitution. The coalition, led
by the Rev. Copley, stressed that raising the
minimum wage was both a moral issue and one of
economic justice.
Polling
late last year showed that 87 percent of Arkansans
support raising the state minimum wage, which,
like the federal minimum wage, hadn't been increased
since 1997. The groundswell of grassroots support
for the coalition's efforts played a key role
in persuading the Legislature to approve this
minimum wage increase, Copley said last week when
the bill passed.
"The
people of Arkansas in overwhelming numbers agreed
that raising the minimum wage was the right thing
to do," Copley said. "The polls showed
that Arkansans believe it is wrong for anyone
who works hard and plays by the rules to earn
a wage so low that they are in poverty.
"This
is truly a moral issue, a faith issue and a family
values issue. Our faith traditions teach that
we should be concerned about people as they seek
to make a living and about those who struggle
each and every day just to make ends meet,"
Copley said.
The
coalition agreed to end its campaign to get the
constitutional amendment on the November ballot
provided the Legislature approved and the governor
signed into law the agreed-upon minimum wage increase.
The minimum wage increase will take effect three
months earlier than the constitutional amendment
had it been approved by voters.
The
proposed amendment would have increased the minimum
wage by $1 an hour and indexed the wage annually
for the cost of living.
"The
most important thing was that we got the wage
increased and that working people started getting
more money," Copley said.
When
the campaign was formally launched on Dec. 12,
2005, the emphasis was on how raising the minimum
wage is an issue of faith, morals and family values.
At
a news conference at Christ Episcopal Church,
Little Rock, on Jan. 19, 2006, leaders from a
variety of faith traditions stressed the moral
importance of raising Arkansas' minimum wage.
Among those who spoke at this event was the Rev.
Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, a United
Methodist Pastor and a leader in the Let Justice
Roll Living Wage Campaign.
"Give
Arkansas A Rai$e Now is proud to have played a
part in bringing this important issue to the forefront
of public attention," Copley said. "The
hard-working volunteers who took time out of their
busy lives to help circulate petitions and spread
the word about why a minimum wage increase was
so important are the real heroes of this grassroots
effort."
The
coalition partners in Give Arkansas A Rai$e Now
are:
-
Individuals from the following faith traditions:
African Methodist Episcopal Zion; Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ); Episcopal Church;
Jewish; National Baptist Convention USA; Presbyterian
Church; Roman Catholic Church; Unitarian Universalist
Church; United Church of Christ; and United
Methodist Church.
-
Southern Good Faith Fund; Arkansas Advocates
for Children and Families; Arkansas AFL-CIO;
Arkansas Public Policy Panel; Arkansas Citizens
First Congress; Arkansas ACORN; Arkansas NAACP;
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME) Council 38; Arkansas Hunger
Coalition; Arkansas Association of Community
Action Agencies; Arkansas Chapter, Methodist
Federation for Social Action; Arkansas Conference,
United Methodist Church, Board of Church and
Society; Arkansas Interfaith Alliance; Arkansas
Interfaith Conference; Arkansas Interfaith Committee
for Worker Justice; Arkansas Homeless Coalition;
Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance; Arkansas Supportive
Housing Network, Inc.; Arkansas NOW; Central
Arkansas Labor Council; Pulaski County Democratic
Committee; Stonewall Democratic Club; Women's
Project; National Conference for Community and
Justice of Arkansas; William H. Bowen School
of Law Young Democrats; Sebastian County Democratic
Committee.
Arkansas
contact: The Rev. Stephen Copley, 501.626.9220.
Let Justice Roll contact: The
Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, 216.736.3710, psher973@aol.com,
www.letjusticeroll.org.
National Council of Churches News contact:
Dan Webster, 212.870.2252, dwebster@ncccusa.org,
www.ncccusa.org.
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