Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2001 | 10:50 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- A report released today calls upon the state of Nevada to enact a "living wage" law that would close the gap between the federally set minimum wage and what it takes to actually put food on the table and keep a roof overhead.
The living wage law would apply to businesses receiving state money. In exchange for grants, tax breaks, loans and government contracts, businesses under such a law would have to agree to pay a negotiated living wage.
The report also calls upon the state to augment the minimum wage, which has remained at $5.15 an hour for the past four years.
The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, which spent a year on the report titled "Working Hard, Living Poor," found that 57.3 percent of the current jobs in Nevada pay less than a living wage.
Susan Chandler, a consultant who the alliance hired to author the study, said that while Nevada led the nation in the creation of new jobs in the last decade, many of the jobs do not pay very well.
"You can work two full-time, minimum-wage jobs and still not make ends meet for your families," Chandler said.
She said 72 percent of the 48,890 minimum-wage workers in Nevada (35,200) are adults and 40 percent (19,556) are the sole source of income for their households.
Joe Edson, field organizer for the alliance, said most of the low-paying jobs are in the service industry, which includes casinos. He said Las Vegas is more heavily unionized, which tends to bring up the wages in Southern Nevada slightly.
Mark Nichols, president of the alliance, said "While the economy boomed in recent years, it's been a big bust for working families, especially in Reno and rural Nevada."
The alliance is an umbrella organization for more than 40 groups, including the ACLU, the Nevada State AFL-CIO, Latinos for Political Education, Association of Social Workers, Citizen Alert, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Nevada Urban Indians, Common Cause, Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada, State of Nevada Employees Association, the Sierra Club and the Nevada State Education Association.
The report says that poverty-level jobs have increased from 20 percent to nearly 26 percent in Nevada over the last 30 years.
A homeless man staying at Poverello House, a shelter run by Franciscan friar David Buer, is among those who until recently was working a poverty-level job in Las Vegas.
"For the last year I was working for $5.15 an hour as a laborer, and it just wasn't enough," the man, who identified himself only as Jim, said Monday. "It was enough for me to eat and buy cigarettes, but at the end of the day I was still homeless sleeping outside. It was frustrating, because I was working, but I wasn't getting anywhere."
Jim now has a new job in the service industry that pays $7 an hour.
"It's enough for me to save a little and get back on my feet," Jim said. "When I was getting minimum wage, I'd have to starve myself to save anything."
The alliance recommends increasing the minimum wage and enacting a so-called "living wage" to help people like Jim.
A "living wage" law would require that businesses that benefit from public money either through tax breaks, grants, loans or government contracts should be required to pay their workers a living wage.
"We should not be subsidizing businesses that pay their workers a poverty wage," Nichols said. "When Nevada does that, we taxpayers get hit with a double whammy.
"First, we pay for the corporate subsidy. But, then we still have to pay for critical social services to those working families because of the low wages they receive."
The report said many low-income workers hold two jobs to make ends meet. An estimated 23.7 percent, or 466,300 Nevadans, are without health insurance.
Child care takes about 16 percent of a working family's budget and parents often cut corners in this area.
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