As we discussed in a previous piece, poverty in the so-called U.S. and in so-called Roanoke, VA is created by a system that prioritizes private individual ownership of the means of production over public need, effectively allowing the “owners” to get rich off of their workers’ labor (while also doing little to no work themselves). Or to put it another way, half of us here are poor simply because employers steal our surplus labor giving us back unlivable wages, landlords and banks charge too much for housing, police and prisons criminalize people for being Black, Brown, poor, LGBTQ, etc. A first step toward ending poverty in Roanoke is fairly obvious: pay people enough to live!
Virginia is one of the states that follows the “Dillon Rule“, which basically forbids local governments from enacting laws they haven’t been expressly given powers to do. This means if Roanoke City Council tried to ban fracking or pass a higher minimum wage law for all private businesses in Roanoke that the State would potentially sue the city and nullify such law. However; cities and towns can control what they pay their own workers (i.e. those who work directly for or are contracted to work for Roanoke City), and this is what is referred to as a “living wage ordinance”.
From what we’ve gathered, there are *at least* three cities in VA that have passed living wage ordinances for city workers. In chronological order these cities are:
* Alexandria – passed in June 2000 as $10.89/hr (it is $14.13/hr as of 2016)
* Charlottesville – passed in Nov. 2001 as $8/hr (it is $13.79/hr as of 2017)
* Arlington – passed in June 2003 as $10.98/hr (it is $14.50/hr as of 2016)
If you’re wondering how much people need to live in Roanoke at a very minimum (which is not the same as a livable wage) check out our version of the poverty levels, which to be honest still probably underestimate current costs in 2018. If you’d rather see what economic experts have calculated as a livable wage in Roanoke for different numbers of adults and kids, check out the Economic Policy Institute, which is what Charlottesville’s living wage ordinance is supposed to go by. And speaking of Cville and some inspiring news for a change, their new mayor (who’s also their first Black female mayor), Nikuyah Walker, is currently advocating for raising their living wage ordinance to $15/hr.
No Roanoke City Councilperson Has Ever Proposed A Living Wage Ordinance
When Roanoke Peoples’ Power Network was still 15 Now Roanoke, in 2015, we went to multiple city council meetings to give testimonials as workers and asked them just to write a resolution recommending that the state legislature raise VA’s minimum wage. Though the unavoidable basic facts and math, expected benefits of raising wages, and compelling personal stories were presented to city council (some of whom pretended to be empathetic), they predictably just gave lip service about discussing it and never did anything else; one of the councilpersons who’s running for re-election right now, Ray Ferris, apparently even got so bothered by having to hear the truth from workers about not being able to survive on $7.25 (or $10 or $12)/hr that he felt the need to go on-record (and on a 4-minute rant) to state his clueless opposition to livable wages that is clearly the result of being out-of-touch with what it costs to live in Roanoke as seen in the video below:
Ferris isn’t the only one we should be outraged at just because he verbalized his opposition; inaction is just as bad and harmful in effect. None of the people on Roanoke City Council, some of whom have been there for 14+ years, have done anything to ensure city workers can afford to live. In fact, no Roanoke City Councilperson has ever even proposed the idea of a living wage ordinance for city workers. Just looking at the city website for current job openings as of today, there are at least 8 types of positions that pay significantly less than $15/hr. As an employer and THE authority here, Roanoke City sets the example for other businesses, and that example should not be that paying poverty wages is okay. Now some of the current councilpersons may have or will claim they “support” the “idea” of living wages, but actions speak louder than words, and there has been no action on this.
Giving workers a few dollars more (which is basically still crumbs) is not a solution to the plethora of issues we face, and we aren’t saying that’s the end game. We understand that an increase in wages is just a reform, which will not address the roots of exploitative and oppressive conditions in Roanoke. But people need to be able to live. Figuring out and proposing a living wage ordinance for all city workers in Roanoke is the least that city council can do.
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