For Immediate Release
Contacts:
Rev. Jennifer Kottler, Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, 773-960-8960, rev.jen.kottler@letjusticeroll.org.
Rev. Rebekah Jordan, Mid-South Interfaith Network for Economic Justice, 901-212-6309, msinterfaith@yahoo.com.

Forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers making poverty wages, he would be shocked to see millions of Americans making poverty wages today. Faith leaders from around the country will gather in Memphis, TN, on March 13 to continue Dr. King's work for living wages for all workers with an event organized by the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign and the Mid-South Interfaith Network for Economic Justice.

Dr. King told striking sanitation workers in Memphis on March 18, 1968, "It is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis at a full-time job getting part-time income… We are tired of working our hands off and laboring every day and not even making a wage adequate with daily basic necessities of life." Dr. King said, "Now is the time to make an adequate income a reality for all of God's children… Now is the time for justice to roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

·                                 In 1968, Memphis sanitation workers at the bottom of the pay scale earned $10 an hour, adjusted for inflation.

·  In 1968, workers earning the federal minimum wage made an inflation-adjusted $9.70.

·  In 2008, forty years later, the federal minimum wage is 40 percent less, at $5.85.

"Talking about values is no substitute for valuing hardworking men and women who need a higher minimum wage," said Rev. Jennifer Kottler, Executive Director of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign. "Workers should not have to choose between paying the rent and buying food for their children. A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it."

"Forty years after Martin Luther King traveled to Memphis to support striking workers -- a trip that cost him his life -- many still work for the city at poverty wages," said Rev. Rebekah Jordan, Executive Director of the Mid-South Interfaith Network for Economic Justice, located in Memphis. "We must remember that city workers currently living in poverty are paid with taxpayer dollars. Our faiths call on us to ensure that all workers enjoy the fruits of their labor by earning a living wage."

As Dr. King said on March 18, 1966, "We know of no more crucial civil rights issue facing Congress today than the need to increase the federal minimum wage and extend its coverage. A living wage should be the right of all working Americans."