Living Wage Resolution

The Northern Virginia Central Labor Council has passed a resolution calling upon the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to adopt a self-sufficiency wage of $15.29 per hour for all direct employees of Fairfax County.

Northern Virginia Central Labor Council President Daniel Duncan explained:

?While the Board, on advice of counsel, doubts its legal authority to ask its contractors to pay a living wage, no one disputes the county?s authority to require that its own employees be paid a living wage. Compelling testimony at the Fairfax County Board Budget Hearings demonstrated that a significant number of County employees did not earn a wage sufficient to support themselves without assistance from public welfare or private charity. A widely respected study by Wider Opportunities for Women leads us to estimate that level in Fairfax County of 2007 at $15.29 per hour ? about $32,000 per year for a full-time employee.

It is both poor human resource management and a moral scandal that any employee of Fairfax County be paid a wage below that necessary to support themselves. (This is true whether they be official career employees or hidden under the ?limited-term? classification). At our May meeting, the delegates of the Northern Virginia Central Labor Council unanimously passed this resolution reaffirming our call to the board to take leadership on this issue by adopting a living wage for all its direct employees.?

The Campaign for a Living Wage thanks the Northern Virginia Central Labor Council for its leadership in seeking a living wage for all Fairfax County public workers!

Clayton Sinyai
Chairman, Campaign for a Living Wage

I'd like to urge the progressive community to join their union brothers and sisters in supporting this measure.  I'll provide more information if and when it comes up for a vote.

There is something not healthy about a place whose firefighters, police officers, teachers, and nurses cannot afford to live in the community they serve.

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