Missouri Catholic Conference Supports Increase in Minimum Wage

August 31, 2006, JEFFERSON CITY, MO – The Missouri Catholic Conference will support Proposition B that seeks to raise the minimum wage in Missouri from $5.15 an hour to $6.50 an hour with increases tied to the Consumer Price Index.

Missouri law presently does not set a dollar minimum but rather adopts the federal minimum wage by reference. The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 1996. Because of increases in the cost-of-living, the current minimum wage is at its lowest value in more than 50 years.

Proponents say raising the minimum wage will benefit more than a quarter million people in the state of Missouri and pump $21 million into the economy. They reject opponents’ claim that raising the minimum wage will result in fewer employment opportunities.

“History clearly shows that raising the minimum wage has not negatively impacted the economy,” said Deacon Larry Weber, Executive Director of the Missouri Catholic Conference. “In fact, during the four years after the last federal minimum wage increase, the economy experienced its strongest growth in over three decades.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have long supported an increase in the federal minimum wage. The USCCB’s Office of Social Development and World Peace states, “In Catholic teaching, the principle of a living wage is integral to our understanding of human work. Wages must be adequate for workers to provide for themselves and their families indignity.”

During a news conference on the steps of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Aug. 9, Father Frank Schuele read a statement from Bishop Robert W. Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Bishop Finn said he supports the measure “as part of my ongoing concern about the dignity of low-income families struggling to break out of poverty and sustain their families. The minimum wage needs to be raised to help restore its purchasing power, not just for the goods and services one can buy, but for the self-esteem and self-worth it affords the worker.”

Studies show that 70 percent of workers affected by the minimum wage are predominately adult women and minorities and that 30 percent of those are the sole wage earner in their family. Research demonstrates that contrary to popular opinion raising the minimum wage does not so much benefit middle class teenagers as it does poor women and minorities.

“The church teaches that work is more than just a job, it is the way people ordinarily meet their material needs and community obligations,” Deacon Weber said. “Wages should allow workers to adequately provide for these needs in a dignified manner.”

Members of the AFL-CIO, SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) also endorse the measure.