Seeks to Raise Workers out of Poverty 

Albany, Feb. 17, 2010 – Hunger Action Network of NYS continued its campaign to raise the state minimum wage to $10 by hour by delivering a legal petition with 170 signatures of low-income New Yorkers to NYS Commissioner of Labor Colleen Gardner. The petition, provided for under State Law, asks that the Dept. of Labor to investigate the adequacy of the state's present living wage, the first step in convening a state minimum wage board to administratively raise the minimum wage.Hunger Action is also urging State Legislators to raise the state minimum wage, currently $7.25, the same as the federal.Thirteen states and the District of Columbia already have minimum wages above $7.25. Earning $7.25 an hour, a full-time worker will gross $15,080 annually, less than 83 percent of the bare-bones federal poverty line for a family of three ($18,310). New York’s minimum wage is more than 21 percent below its peak value in 1970, which was $9.23 in today’s dollars.“It is morally wrong and economically unsustainable when people work full time but still have to choose between paying the rent and paying for food, paying for childcare or paying for healthcare,” said Mark Dunlea, Executive Director of Hunger Action Network.  “It is morally wrong and socially corrosive that some are paid so little that their children go without necessities.  A job should lift and keep you out of poverty, not trap you in it,” he added.Under section 653 of the state labor law, a petition with 50 or more signatures from persons “employed in, or affected by, an occupation receiving wage insufficient to provide adequate maintenance and protect their health,” means that the Commissioner of Labor is required to launch an investigation of the adequacy of the minimum wage.The present minimum wage forces many fully employed people to seek charity or government help with food stamps, heating bills, and other means of social support just to make ends meet“The number of people using emergency food programs in New York State has increased more than 50% in the last two years.  Many of these individuals have jobs but the pay is too low to support their families,” stated Andreas Kriefall, Upstate Director.  “Studies have shown this recession is hitting people at the bottom of the income scale with challenges and hardships that rival those of the Great Depression, and state deficits limit our options in providing relief.  A raise in the minimum wage, which costs the taxpayers nothing and in fact reduces the public financial burden by decreasing the demand for services, would be a hugely significant step to help those hurting the most from the downturn, especially innocent children in poor families.” Hunger Action Network asserts that a minimum wage of $10 would be a very strong and effective fiscal stimulus with an immediate impact for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, and a boost to local economies and small businesses across the state where poor people spend every dime of their income on basic necessities.

Hunger Action Network of New York State is a statewide membership organization of emergency food providers, advocates, faith groups and low-income individuals whose goal is to end hunger and its root causes, including poverty, in New York State.