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Georgia Minimum Wage Coalition “Hard Work Deserves Fair Pay” |
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The mission of the Georgia Minimum Wage Coalition is to empower grassroots community leaders to promote public education about the problem of and solutions for working poverty. Our work is based on this principle: The promise of America is that if you work hard you should be able to support yourself and your family. An adequate minimum wage is a necessary step to ensure that promise. However, thousands of hard working Georgians are not covered by the federal minimum wage. We need to raise Georgia’s minimum wage from $5.15/hr to the federal rate of $7.25/hr (by July 2009) and cover all workers in our state. Support legislation to ensure that all Georgia workers receive the federal minimum wage rate! |
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The Georgia Minimum Wage Coalition, a coalition of more than 50 labor, faith, and community organizations, has been working to increase the state minimum wage since 2006. Our long-term goal is to win policies at the local, state, and national levels that address the issues of working poverty. Our campaign history includes: 2007—SB 13 (sponsored by Sen. Robert Brown, D-Macon) to raise the state wage to $7.25/hour, was defeated on a tie vote in committee. 2008—The federal minimum wage increase was passed in May 2007. HB 845 (sponsored by Rep. Doug McKillip, D-Athens) proposed to raise the state minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25/hour, to cover sections of the workforce not covered by the federal wage, to increase the tipped credit from $2.13/hour to 50% of the regular minimum, and to index the state wage to the cost of living, but neither the House nor Senate bill received a committee hearing. 2009—The bills will be reintroduced to the Georgia Legislature to raise the state minimum wage (over several years) above the federal rate of $7.25/hour. We need your support to challenge the Georgia Legislature to finally pass this bill.
The Georgia proposal has several important additional elements :
Index the minimum wage to the cost of living. Our proposal includes the indexing, as do laws in 10 other states. This prevents low wage workers from sliding back into poverty as cost of living increases. Last December, Georgia legislators voted themselves a pay increase (by raising the per diem expense rate) AND indexed it to the cost of inflation. Low-wage workers deserve the same standard.
Include more low-wage workers under minimum wage: State and federal law now excludes home care workers who provide basic, non-medical care for the elderly, ill, and disabled. Farm workers and seasonal recreational employees work for companies of 6 or more employees are also excluded. Our bill would help these low wage workers.
Wage increase for tipped workers. It appears that the federal bill will not increase the wage for tipped workers, who now earn $2.13/hr and did not see an increase in 1997 when the regular minimum wage was increased to $5.15/hr. We propose that the tipped worker wage be set at 50% of the regular minimum.
Raise the state minimum wage to the same level as national. Georgia’s minimum wage is currently $5.15/hr. Some categories of workers are covered only by state, not federal wage rate. These workers also deserve the same increase. |
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Two new initiatives have the potential of building statewide support for the campaign to address working poverty.
Ž The Faith-based Outreach Program will continue to expand the involvement of religious leaders of all faiths and to reach congregations outside of the metro area. Read an opinion piece by our Faith-based Organizer, Rev. Christopher Henry. Ž Our Strategic Media Campaign will focus on raising visibility for the minimum wage campaign by training local spokespeople to address issues with the candidates and by maintaining local attention through the legislative session. |
