Joint religious coalition organizes to support increase in state’s minimum wage
Monday, Oct. 21 saw a community forum at Grand Rapids’ Community Presbyterian Church on raising Minnesota’s hourly minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9.50 by 2015.
The forum was presented by representatives of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition (JRLC), a Minnesota religious lobby for social justice that is managed by the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the Minnesota Council of Churches, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, and the Islamic Center of Minnesota.
Representatives from JRLC included Brian Rusche, executive director, and Reverend Alison Killeen, director of organizing and practical theology.
Kathleen Blake was first to speak on the proposed minimum wage increase. Blake is a Grand Rapids resident and a longtime member of JRLC, as well as an organizer for TakeAction Minnesota, a grassroots organization working to engage communities on issues of social, economic, and racial justice.
If minimum wage had been adequately adjusted for inflation, said Blake, then it should now be $10.68 an hour. If it had been adjusted for companies’ average productivity gains, it would sit at nearly $22.00 an hour.
Contrary to the stereotypical portrait of minimum wage workers as teenagers, 77 percent of minimum wage workers are adults, Blake said.
