Labor Again Leads Fight to Raise Minimum Wage

If you've got a union contract, you earn more — at least a little more, and sometimes a lot more — than minimum wage. Yet no group has worked harder than union members to raise the country's minimum wage and the standard of living for America's working poor.

As CWA Local 7037 President Robin Gould put it, "The bottom line is that it's the right thing to do and the ethical thing to do."

Gould's public worker local is helping to lead the charge in New Mexico to raise the state's minimum wage. And if anyone knows how to run a campaign like that it's Gould, her members and their allies in the social activist community: Three years ago, they succeeded in passing a living wage law covering virtually all employers in Santa Fe. The wage is now $9.50 an hour.

"We got involved because we're not only interested in our members, we're interested in all workers and all workers' issues," Gould said. "This was another way we could address some of the inequities in what is a very, very wealthy community."

The federal minimum wage has stood at $5.15 an hour for a decade. Democrats in Congress are determined to raise it, but Republicans and a few Democrats are holding it up with demands that any raise be tied to tax cuts for businesses. Nationally, union members continue to turn out for rallies and marches, lead e-mail campaigns, meet with lawmakers and otherwise lobby for a federal minimum wage hike. A pending bill would raise it to $7.25 an hour.

Unions are also leading the way at the state level. From testifying before state legislatures to holding town hall meetings and doing many other mobilization activities, unions have succeeded in getting 29 states and Washington, D.C., to pass minimum wages that are higher than the federal wage.

Richard Troxell, who founded and runs the Universal Living Wage Campaign, said unions have played a pivotal role in wage battles for low-income workers and his group is preparing to ask them to get even more involved as the campaign grows.

"This is a wage level below what union members earn. It's not going to directly benefit them," Troxell said. "But I think, especially in this current administration, people are saying, 'This is just wrong.' And that voice is getting louder and louder.'"