Press Release: 11 LGBT Organizations Call For Increase To Minimum Wage

For immediate release:
January 17, 2007

Contact:
Jessica Burgan
Pride At Work
202.637.3923

Eleven LGBT Organizations Call on the Senate to Raise the Minimum Wage

Washignton, DC- While applauding the recent passage of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 in the US House of Representatives, Eleven LGBT Organizations urged the quick passage of the accompanying bill in the Senate, and a speedy signing by President Bush.

“It is imperative that the LGBT community concerns itself with matters like these, not just because raising the minimum wage is an issue of basic fairness, but also because we know low-wage jobs and stagnant pay are issues that so many in our community face on a daily basis,” said Nancy Wohlforth, Pride At Work Co-President. “It makes me extremely proud to see so many LGBT organizations standing together in solidarity with the working-class members of our community, in calling, no demanding, an increase to the minimum wage.”

In the sign-on letter to the US Senate, the organizations state:

“Our community is diverse, with workers coming from many different economic backgrounds. The undersigned organizations recognize that an increase to the minimum wage would provide real relief to millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers who currently work for $5.15 an hour. The proposed bill would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.

In a 1998 report published jointly by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and The Institute For Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies, Dr. M.V. Lee Badgett shattered the long-held myth of economic affluence among gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans. Dr. Badgett states, ‘The reality is that lesbians and gay men earn no more than heterosexual people.”

The current minimum wage makes it difficult for workers to support their families and themselves. As working peoples’ wages have remained stagnant or declined over the last ten years, their health care, energy, and housing costs have increased substantially. For instance, it would take someone making the current minimum wage of $5.15 an hour 11.2 hours to earn enough money to pay for a tank of gas.

The organizations that have signed on to the statement are:

Equality Federation

Family Pride Coalition

Freedom To Marry

Hudson Pride Connections

The Mautner Project

The National Association For Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Centers

The National Center For Transgender Equality

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Out And Equal Workplace Advocates

Pride At Work, AFL-CIO

Queers For Economic Justice

Please click here to read the full signing statement.

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Pride At Work is an affiliated constituency group of the AFL-CIO. Pride At Work seeks to mobilize mutual support between the organized Labor Movement and the LGBT community around organizing for social and economic justice. We seek full equality for LGBT workers in their workplaces and unions. www.prideatwork.org