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Opinion | Local Religious Leaders: A $15 Minimum Wage Lifts Us All Up

A Letter to the Editor from 20 Faith Leaders Serving the Pasadena Community

Published on Sunday, October 4, 2015 | 9:47 am
 
Faith community demonstrators shown outside Pasadena City Hall on July 27, 2015 shortly before the City Council took its first steps to consider a local minimum wage ordinance that raise the minimum to $15 per hour. Photo: Rachel Young

As religious leaders serving the Pasadena community, we bear witness to the everyday struggles of the working poor. While Pasadena is the home to great institutions and enormous wealth among its residents, we also see unbearable suffering among poor families, including many children. Our congregants frequently work multiple jobs, but because so many of them earn poverty-level wages, many struggle to make ends meet, put a roof over their heads, and put food on their family tables.

More than 15,000 people employed in Pasadena earn less than $15 per hour. And over 22,000 Pasadena residents–about 32% percent of the entire working population–earn less than that wage. Considering the children and other dependents of those workers, the scale of suffering within our city is overwhelming. Corporate profits are at their highest level in almost a century, but employee compensation has been steadily declining. This is both unfair and immoral. Religious leaders recognize the responsibility to speak out when our moral standards aren’t cutting it. “Thou shalt not stand idly by” (Lev. 19:16), our Bible teaches.

The city can help lift these families out of poverty by gradually raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, then adjusting it annually by the rate of inflation so that we don’t have to face an ever-growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. Los Angeles City Council has already done this as has the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, covering unincorporated parts of the county, including Altadena. Already, about half of all people working in LA County will be on their way to life-sustaining raises, and there’s growing momentum for the 87 other cities in the county to follow their lead. We believe Pasadena should be the next city to take this step.

Economists can tell you that when working people have more spending money, they spend it, which improves the overall economy. In fact, raising Pasadena’s minimum wage will add $150 million a year to the economy, a windfall for local businesses. Raising the minimum wage and reducing poverty will help us as a community to reduce hunger, crime, homelessness, and the risk of serious health problems. It will give new life to our most vulnerable community members. And for our low-income children, it will bring much-needed stability to their lives, enabling them to succeed in school – and in life.

Too often, low-income parents don’t have the money to pay for various enrichment activities that middle-class families take for granted. Children don’t have access to healthy food. Low-income parents can’t be as present to their children while holding down two or more jobs. The stresses of poverty make it difficult for many children to focus on their schoolwork. Kids who live in poverty have greater emotional, social, and cognitive development problems. This has everything to do with poverty.

Widening inequality has far reaching implications for our society. It is both a national and local problem. And it is a product of a system that favors big business while ignoring the needs of working families and poor children. It is time to address the intergenerational poverty that destroys our children’s future. Our traditions remind us that sustaining working people is a communal responsibility. The Hebrew Prophets were overwhelmingly concerned with the poor and the downtrodden. The Bible teaches “You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns” (Deut. 24).

And the New Testament teaches that “The laborer deserves to be paid” (Luke 10:7). All religions teach economic justice, for it is the embodiment of inherent worth and dignity for all. Pasadena is a generous city that serves the needs of low-income families and children. As clergy serving this community, we proudly participate in this safety net for “the least of these” (Matthew 25). But we need more than charity. Justice demands that employers provide their employees a livable wage. While we know some employers already do this, we also know that city leaders can end the scourge of poverty wages that leave families helpless.

It is time that Pasadena’s mayor and city council members adopt the same law passed by the City and County of L.A.– a $15/hour minimum wage by 2020 followed by cost-of-living adjustments, with no exemptions and with enforcement.

Rector Ed Bacon, All Saints Church
Pastor George Van Alstine, Altadena Baptist Church
Fr. Gerard O’ Brien, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church
Rev. Jake H. Pomeroy, First Congregational Church of Pasadena
Rev. Andy Schwiebert, First Congregational Church of Pasadena
Pastor Nicholas M. Benson, First Summit Evangelical Church of Pasadena
Rev. Sandy Olewine, First United Methodist Church of Pasadena
Rev. Donna Byrns, Friends in Deed
Rev. Matthew Colwell, Knox Presbyterian Church
Rev. Jennifer Burgos, Reformation Lutheran Church Pasadena
Rev. Lissa Gundlach, Neighborhood UU Church
Rev. Hannah Petrie, Neighborhood UU Church
Pastor Henry A. Johnson, New Dawn Missionary Baptist Church
Rev. John Stewart, New Guiding Light M.B.C.
Pastor Mace D. Doyne, New Jerusalem M.B.C.
Pastor Kerwin Manning, Pasadena Church
Rabbi Becky Silverstein, Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center
Rev. Tera Little, Throop UU Church
Rabbi Marvin Gross, Union Station Homeless Services
Pastor John B. Bledsoe, Zion Star Missionary Baptist Church

 

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