No one who works full-time in Huntsville, Alabama should be in poverty. Right now, a single parent making $7.25 an hour, with two children, is more than $4,000 below the poverty line. She needs food stamps and other public assistance just to survive, even though she is working full time.
Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would lift 34,000 Huntsville employees above the poverty line. It would benefit the local economy and boost city revenue through increased consumer spending. It would demonstrate that Rocket City values the dignity of work.
The City Council has the authority to pass an ordinance raising the minimum wage within city limits. More than 30 cities, including Birmingham, have already done this. None of them have regretted it or later reversed course. In fact, those cities have seen better job growth than cities that did not raise the wage. It's time for Huntsville to do the right thing: Pass a city ordinance that raises the minimum wage, in phases, to $10.10 by July 2017, followed by annual cost of living increases.
To the Huntsville City Council and Mayor Tommy Battle:
Pass an ordinance to raise the minimum wage for all employees within the jurisdiction of the City of Huntsville, AL to at least $10.10. The ordinance we support calls for phasing in the increases through 2017 and indexing the wage to federal cost of living increases. Paying workers a living wage is simply the right thing to do. No one who works full-time in Huntsville should be in poverty.
