So what is a Living Wage and why Buffalo should care.

Living Wage enforcement and expansion is the cornerstone to CEJ's work in WNY. For 10 years we have fought with the City to enforce a city living wage ordinance passed unanimously by the Common Council in the late 90's. The Ordinance requires the city to pay all of their employees a living wage as well as require any business that contracts with the city to pay their employees a living wage. The Ordinance has changed over the years to include a cost of living index, meaning the living wage would be annually assessed based on inflation, and a volunteer Living Wage Commission, which to date is one of the few that exists in country despite over 150 Living Wage laws on the books.

We should be clear, the law is not in place to bankrupt the city. Economists, activists, public officials, community representatives and workers have spent years exploring the impact of Living Wages on municipalities and have found that it does not bankrupt a city, it does not drive business away or our of certain locations, but rather lifts hardworking low wage workers out of poverty. Low income individuals are proven to spend more, not invest or hold their money like the wealthy, and therefore the simple economics state that they will spend more in their communities, bolstering local businesses and having a deep impact on the city's economic rise.

So why the backlash or lack of support for Living Wages? Buffalo's economic decline is legendary in WNY. The once booming city with more millionaires per capita, has felt the devastating blow of globalization, poor zoning laws, ineffectual elected officials, and with that the overwhelming hopelessness that accompanies severe economic decline. And now we are the second poorest city in the nation. Thousands of vacant properties stand idly by and rot, both the edifices themselves as well as the fabric of the communities, city officials are grabbing at silver bullet opportunities to redefine our economic engines, and people are fleeing the city for the outlying suburbs and beyond.

CEJ believes that community based economic development must be the focus of our administration, and this concept includes paying living wages. The city law has it's exemptions, non-profits can absolutely apply for an exemption, businesses with less than 10 employees are automatically exempt, as are businesses that contract with the city for less than $50,000. The businesses that fall under the Living Wage Ordinance CAN AFFORD to pay their employees a wage that can help jump start our local economy. We see a national recession, no question, but do question who is financially receding....it's not the top 5%, the wealthy. It's the middle class and it's the poor.

The Living Wage in Buffalo is calculated based on the lifting a family of 3 out of poverty, based on the economic situation of Buffalo. 2008's Living Wage stands at $9.90 if the employer offers health benefits, and $11.11 without health care. An individual making NYS minimum wage and working 40 hours will bring in a salary of $14,872. An individual making a Living Wage without health benefits will have a salary of $23,108.

Those that have seen their paychecks rise since the Living Wage Ordinance was passed have shared what they are able to do now that they were unable to do before. It ranges from simply being able to do their own laundry to purchasing a car or a home. The undercurrent to the increased financial liberties is the increased sense of dignity around their job. Considering the amount of time Americans spend working, shouldn't we feel good about what we do? Isn't that something we are all entitled to?

It's crucial that we rethink our priorities. Buffalo may never be the booming city we hear fairy tales about, but it doesn't mean that we can't pull ourselves out of this economically depressed chasm and be a great city again. We have to shift from "growth obsessed" policies to community based neighborhood revitalization policies. Dignified employment through expanding Living Wage policies is real and imperative step towards such a paradigm shift.