Memphis City Workers Getting a Living Wage

by James Parks, Jan 10, 2007

Memphis prides itself on its music and barbecue. Now the city where Martin Luther King Jr. lost his life fighting for justice for working people can pride itself on providing a living wage for many of its workers. 

After more than three years of vigorous campaigning by faith, union and community organizations, the Memphis City Council on Nov. 21 passed the first living wage law in Tennessee history. Supporters marched, rallied and lobbied council members. In April 2006, some 250 people participated in a 40-hour fast in support of a living wage.

A living wage helps to ensure that low-wage workers and their families can live above the poverty level. Since 1994, more than 140 communities have enacted living wage laws, which cover a wide range of workers—municipal employees, those working for city and county contractors, health care workers and college and university employees.

Approved on a 11–1 vote, the Memphis ordinance requires the city’s service contractors who provide janitorial, security, landscaping and other services to pay their workers at least $10 per hour if they offer health insurance, or $12 per hour without insurance.

Just two weeks later, the council passed an ordinance requiring that all part-time and temporary city workers be paid at least $10 per hour beginning in July. Hundreds of part-time workers have been on the city payroll for years, yet they have no benefits or job security, and most are paid poverty-level wages.

Rev. Rebekah Jordan, director of the Mid-South Interfaith Network, an affiliate of Interfaith Worker Justice and one of the more than 40 groups that make up the Memphis Living Wage Campaign, says:

We are thrilled with the living wage victories that have been won this fall, and we give thanks to God that thousands more Memphis workers will now earn enough to care for their families.

And that’s not all. Last fall, the City Council voted to require companies that receive property tax freezes from the city’s industrial development board to create jobs that pay at least $10 per hour and provide health insurance to workers.

The wage victories with city contractors and tax freeze recipients are already causing public officials to raise the living wage issue elsewhere. The City Council has asked Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) officials to report back by the end of this month on the possibility of MLGW contractors being required to pay a living wage. 

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