Living Wage Panel Discussion at COF Annual Conference 2007

Hear the April 28 discussion featuring the Barbara Ehrenreich, best-selling author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch; Roger Weisberg, Emmy award winning filmmaker of Waging a Living; Wyatt Closs, of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Simon Kilmurry, Executive Producer of the PBS series P.O.V.

Co-sponsored by Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families, Funders Committee for Civic Participation, Grantmakers Concerned about Immigrants and Refugees and the Neighborhood Funders Group, this lively panel brings together four very different voices to discuss how earning a “living wage” can move people out of poverty.

Here are the numbers: The current minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. The U.S. Congress is proposing an increase to $7.25 an hour which yields a gross annual income of $15,000. The federal government, however, calculates that a family of four is in poverty if they earn less than $19,900 per year. How can we transform the minimum wage into a living wage? Our panelists discuss this issue and how the strategic funding and use of media can bring this, or any social issue, to the attention of the nation and catalyze the national will.

Clip 1: With wit and insight, Barbara Ehrenreich shares her experiences as a minimum wage worker while researching her book Nickel and Dimed. She casts a living wage as a moral issue. Roger Weisberg discusses why he chose the subject for his Henry Hampton award winning film and makes the compelling point for us to stop taking for granted the minimum wage workers we encounter in our daily lives. Simon Kilmurry lays out P.O.V.’s creative and effective living wage civic engagement campaign using Weisberg’s film, Waging a Living.

Clip 2: Wyatt Closs and his colleague, Seattle Local 775 President Dave Rolf, take a uniquely creative approach in sharing successful strategies and tactics workers and SEIU have had using “new media” such as the internet and podcasts. Please note that from 09:50 to 13:30 a clip from a Spanish language podcast is being loaded and screened.

Other ways of accessing this material are available on Internet Archive's item page.