By the end of March, our elected representatives in Albany will have a chance to tackle income inequality, make New York more economically competitive, help right a racial injustice, and give our young people the financial power to build a life in the communities where they grew up -- all with a single vote.
How? By supporting Governor Cuomo's proposal to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour in New York state.
Economic inequality has indisputably reached a crisis point in our country. The cost of everything -- from housing to groceries, day-care to college tuition -- has gone up in recent decades. But for too many Americans, the real value of take-home pay has stayed flat, or even dropped, leaving them struggling to make ends meet. As faith leaders, we see this crisis as not only an economic one, but also a moral one: when a parent working a full time job isn't paid enough to provide for their child's food, clothing and shelter, it's more than economically unfair, it's a violation of fundamental American values.
Right now, 46 percent of working people in the U.S. make less than $15 an hour, which isn't enough to pay for the basic needs of their families. This is unacceptable. The numbers are even more dire when you look at communities of color: more than half of African-American workers and close to 60 percent of Latino/a workers make less than $15 an hour. A raise in the minimum wage to $15 -- the minimum that is needed to sustain a reasonable standard of living -- can help lift up low-income communities and communities of color to build a more equitable economy for all Americans.
Americans have seen this scale of inequality before. During the Gilded Age at the turn of the twentieth century, America's economic landscape was not so different than today: a small handful of people doing extremely well while everyone else either struggles to get by or falls behind. What helped turn the tide back then was Americans coming together in the labor movement to demand an end to rampant inequality. It was a different time but the demands then are just as relevant today -- a living wage, better working conditions, the right to unionize, and an economy where everyone able to work can find a job and make ends meet.
We can win those kinds of victories again.
That's why American Jews, and many other communities of faith, are stepping up in this fight. Many American Jews, and New York Jews in particular, come from families who immigrated to the U.S. at the turn of the twentieth century and found work in factories with low wages and dangerous working conditions. Those formative experiences helped shape our community's history of activism. Jews were deeply involved in that era's historic labor victories and, later, in the civil rights victories of the 1960s, understanding then that economic and racial justice are deeply intertwined. We are not going to stand on the sidelines now during one of the biggest fights for economic and racial justice in a generation, when countless American families are struggling to make ends meet.
By raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, we can put real dollars into consumer's pockets and take a big step towards reducing economic inequality. That's indisputably good for our economy, which is driven by consumer spending.
Big business groups have tried to distort this obvious truth by claiming that a raise in the wage will force employers to lay off their workers.
But the data just doesn't support that claim. In recent years, cities and states across the country have been raising the minimum wage to tackle inequality and heal some of the damage caused by the Great Recession. Some made the same dire warnings of massive layoffs and joblessness, but these doomsday predictions have not come to pass. And more than 200 leading economists have issued a joint statement saying that all economic data indicates that when an increase in the minimum wage is phased in over time -- as New York's proposal is -- there is no effect on overall employment.
The fact is most low-wage employers are major corporations like McDonald's or Walmart, not family-owned small businesses. Nationally, two-thirds of low-wage workers are employed by large corporations with over 100 employees. The companies can afford to give their workers a living wage. Maximum profit margins, and not fiscal constraint, is the reason they don't.
In our proudest moments, New Yorkers have set the standard for all Americans to follow. The vote before our state Senate is another occasion for New Yorkers to come together, prove the doubters wrong and demand a better life for ourselves and our families.
Let's not miss this chance to create a stronger, better New York for the next generation by passing the $15 an hour minimum wage.