Have a heart: Workers need livable wages!

• Nationally, the number of good jobs -- jobs paying at least $17 an hour, with health insurance -- fell by 3.5 million between 2000 and 2006, a recent report found. 
  
  
• A Congressional Budget Office report highlighted the immensity of the nation's income gap: the total income of the poorest 20% of Americans in 2005 -- including public aid benefits as income -- was less than just the increase in income for the richest 1% during the previous two years.
  
  
• In San Diego County, two-thirds of all jobs created since 1990 are in the bottom third of wage levels -- with median pay of $24,500 a year. Research from the California Budget Project shows that even a person living alone needs $28,000 a year to meet basic living expenses in our county.

San Diego's vision for the future: This Valentine's Day tell local officials to lead with their hearts!

Good, middle-class jobs paying liveable wages should be the heart of San Diego's plan for future development. Yet Mayor Jerry Sanders has removed the vision of liveable wages from a proposed update o fthe General Plan, our city's guideline for development decisions. A council committee agreed with CPI and restored livable wages as a goal, but the battle is not over; the full council will vote March 3.

Send Mayor Sanders and the City Council a Valentine's message. 

Tell them you want to live in a city that values its workers and expects developments to help build the middle class.

Mark your calendar to join us at City Hall at 1 p.m. March 3 to rally for livable wages!

County homecare workers

San Diego County administers the state funding for 22,000 homecare providers, and pays these workers only $9.25 an hour although the state allows wages of $11.50.  These part-time providers give critical in-home services to low-income elderly, blind and disabled county residents who would otherwise be in nursing homes at greater taxpayer expense.

On Valentine's Day, join the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice to ask the County Supervisors
to Have a Heart for In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Providers!