Let Justice Roll coalition thanks Senate
for vote to raise the minimum wage

Washington, February 1, 2007 – The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, a national coalition of 91 religious, labor, and community organizations, thanks the Senate for voting to raise the minimum wage. This is a long-overdue step forward for millions of American workers and their families. We are grateful the Senate heard the voices of millions of working people and their allies in faith, labor and community groups such as ours.

While Let Justice Roll is very pleased with the vote, we are aware that harmful and extraneous items were also included in the bill. We are concerned that these provisions will hurt many of the workers the bill aims to help such as leased employees. The bill also includes unnecessary business tax breaks. We look forward to working with Senate and House leaders on a clean, final bill that will swiftly land on President Bush's desk and be signed into law.

Raising the minimum wage is good for workers, businesses, and our communities. Executives from businesses large and small worked with Let Justice Roll on the campaign to raise the minimum wage. But the minimum wage is a moral issue as well as an economic one. In a recent Let Justice Roll statement to Congress, over 1,000 faith leaders noted the unconscionable and immoral reality that our nation's wealth is built on the backs of those who are working and poor.

The Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry, Let Justice Roll national coordinator, calls the Senate vote, "a significant step toward the day when all American workers earn a living wage, the day when a job will keep you out of poverty, not in it. But we still have a long way to go."

The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign is a fast-growing coalition of 91 faith-based, community, and labor organizations working to support legislation to raise the minimum wage at the federal level and in selected states.                                                            

www.LetJusticeRoll.org

For Immediate Release, February 1, 2007
Contact:  Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry
Work: (216) 736-3710
Cell:  (917) 226-5301