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Focus on West Virginia

Let justice roll

The story of a minimum wage victory in West Virginia

by Rick Wilson

A job should keep you out of poverty, not trap you in it.

That’s the rallying cry of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign (www.letjusticeroll.org), a national coalition working to raise the minimum wage at the federal and state levels. As part of this coalition, of which AFSC is a founding member, our two West Virginia programs recently helped push for legislation that raised the state’s minimum wage.

The urgency of this and similar efforts nationwide cannot be overstated. The federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour has declined in value dramatically since Congress last increased it in 1997. (During that time, Congress voted to give itself eight pay raises.) A full-time minimum wage worker earns $10,712 per year. This is $5,000 less than the official poverty line for a family of three, and less than the cost of family health insurance.

Recent state victories have given a new boost to the campaign to raise the federal minimum wage. AFSC staff in North Carolina, Ohio, and elsewhere are part of active Let Justice Roll campaigns in those states. The story of how this has played out in West Virginia offers hope to low-income families throughout the United States.

Wages to rise gradually

AFSC’s West Virginia Economic Justice Project, based in Charleston, addresses issues affecting low-income and working families statewide. For example, the project works to improve policies and restore cuts in the social safety net. It also uses publications, training, and other forms of outreach to provide low-income families with critical information such as how to buy a home, tax credits for working people, and benefits/programs for which they may be eligible.

AFSC helped launch the statewide minimum wage campaign at a Martin Luther King, Jr., Living Wage Breakfast during the King Holiday this past January. AFSC’s partners in this struggle included the West Virginia AFL-CIO, West Vir-ginia Council of Churches, and other advocacy organizations.

Bills were introduced to raise the state minimum in three stages to $7.25 by June 2008. The House version went to the Senate with less than two weeks to go. However, once there, it got stuck in three committees—usually the kiss of death.

Luckily, AFSC’s New Empowerment for Women Plus program based in Logan came to the rescue. Located in the senate president’s district, the program’s staff and supporters generated calls from local constituents. Combined with similar efforts statewide, the program helped give the bill the final push it needed to pass the West Virginia legislature.

Sweet…but incomplete

The victory was sweet but incomplete. Due to exemptions buried in state law, thousands of workers aren’t yet covered. However, in the next legislative session, our statewide coalition will push for an amendment to state law so that all workers can benefit from the increased minimum wage.

At the bill signing in April, Governor Joe Manchin said, “I am so proud of this piece of legislation. Some people said it’s symbolic. Well, if it’s symbolic, it’s a good symbol for the State of West Virginia to treat people right and fair.”

The West Virginia victory also may be geographically significant. Most states with higher minimum wages are in the Northeast, Eastern seaboard, or West Coast. To win nationally, victories are needed in the South and Midwest. Since the West Virginia win, Arkansas has joined the growing number of states with higher minimums, by passing an increase to $6.25 per hour.

Rick Wilson directs the AFSC West Virginia Economic Justice Project in Charleston (www.afsc.org/midatlantic/charleston.htm).

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