Historical April 1996 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
April 1, 1996 marks an austere anniversary for workers: the last raise in the minimum wage to its current $4.25 level occurred April 1, 1981, 15 years ago. At that hourly wage, full-time minimum wage workers earn $8,840 a year.
A man or woman earning the minimum wage makes less than 75 percent of the poverty level for a family of three. Hundreds of thousands of working adults in Missouri are finding it impossible to raise a family on the minimum wage.
A coalition of organizations – including ACORN, Teamsters Joint Council 13, and Citizens for Missouri’s Children – has launched the Campaign to Reward Work, a state-wide effort to raise the minimum wage to $6.25 per hour through a ballot initiative.
The proposal also calls for an increase to $6.75 per hour by 1999 and fifteen cents a year thereafter.
The raise in the minimum wage seeks to reward responsibility and hard work, and better enable working people to support their families.
The campaign already has nearly hundred volunteers gathering signatures to put this issue on the ballot. You can help – day time, evening or weekends – to gather the 150,000 signatures necessary by July 4 to put the issue before voters on the November ballot.
For more information and to volunteer, call the campaign headquarters at 531-7023.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1996.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1996_04.pdf, printed page(s) 5; PDF page(s) 5.
