Living Wages Community Events - FAQ

Two events were held last Sunday in Lafayette and Orinda to increase the awareness and develop support for Living Wages in our community.  The first was an event I participated in, together with advocates for other causes, outside a shopping center in Lafayette. The second was a talk I gave to a local National Charity League organization later that day.    Between the two events, a number of people signed on to the petition to encourage our local leaders to provide Living Wages for city workers and require companies working for our cities to pay their workers Living Wages on city projects.

There were three general questions about Living Wags in our community.

The first question had to do with whether an increase in Living Wages would increase our taxes.  Clearly, the Living Wage proposal will increase the cost of our community government but workers getting minimum wages are living way below the poverty level and can hardly afford to put food on their tables.  This is an issue of relative priorities.

The second question had to do with whether businesses in our community would be impacted by this proposal.  Currently, the proposal only covers city employees as well as companies doing business with our cities.

The third question why why $12.50 per hour.   The minimum wage is currently $8 per hour - or about $16,000 per year.  $12.50 per hour is approximately $25,000 per year, just above the poverty level as defined by the federal government.

It was clear based on these events that few people even think about the issue of poverty in our local community or our country.  However, as people learned about the issues and one possible approach, there seemed to be strong support to pay a fair amount to the lowest paid workers in our community.