New Report Shows Wide-Reaching Benefits of Minimum Wage Increase with Civil Rights Lens
WASHINGTON – Today, The Leadership Conference Education Fund and the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality released a new report, “Improving Wages, Improving Lives: Why raising the minimum wage is a civil and human rights issue.”
The report explores how the nation’s historically low minimum wage is a major driver of income inequality and poverty and how this impacts the civil and human rights of diverse Americans. The report also examines the current state of minimum wage policy on the state and federal level, and the far-reaching benefits of a minimum wage increase.
Despite a rising cost of living, wages have stagnated and have left many families struggling in low-paying jobs. Earlier this year, The Leadership Conference Education Fund released several fact sheets on how women of color, Latinos, African Americans and LGBT workers would benefit from a raise in the minimum wage.
· Click here to download the report
Quote from Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference:
“African Americans, Latinos, women, and people with disabilities lag behind in almost every indicator of economic well-being. That’s one reason why raising the minimum wage has been a defining issue for the civil and human rights movement for generations. By failing to pass the Minimum Wage Fairness Act, Congress has also failed the millions of American families struggling in low-paying jobs. Today’s minimum wage can’t even support a family’s basic needs, let alone our nation’s economic recovery.”
Quote from Indivar Dutta-Gupta, author of the report and a senior fellow at Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality:
“Raising the minimum wage is an effective policy tool for reducing various forms of economic inequality, which has been a fundamental goal of the civil rights movement of the 20th century and continues to be one today.”
The Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality works with policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and advocates to develop effective policies and practices to alleviate poverty and inequality in the United States. The Center’s areas of anti-poverty work include policy and program recommendations to help marginalized girls, effective workforce and education policies and programs for disconnected youth, and the development of policy to combat deep poverty.
The Leadership Conference Education Fund builds public will for federal policies that promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. The Education Fund’s campaigns empower and mobilize advocates around the country to push for progressive change in the United States. It was founded in 1969 as the education and research arm of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
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