Local churches have a large, yet-to-be filled role to play in educating parishioners and pressing employers to pay a living wage to all their workers, according to local labor and faith-based advocates.
But before they jump into the political fray, congregations will have to look at themselves to see whether their pastors, office staff and other employees are being fairly compensated.
Those were a few of the conclusions reached by dozens of participants during a two-day conference this week on strengthening partnerships between religion and labor — believed to be the first of its kind in Salt Lake City.
While most of the sacred texts Utahns hold dear — including the Bible, the Koran, the Torah and the Book of Mormon — all speak of paying an honest wage commensurate with work performed, low wages are "the number one cause of poverty in Utah," according to George Neckel, director of Utah Jobs With Justice. He said wages in Utah are 20 percent below the national average, while the average cost of living is only 2 percent lower here than nationwide.
Anti-poverty programs in the Beehive State focus on subsidizing people's needs and expenses, and while that's vital, he said, "it only addresses the symptoms and not the root cause. It won't lift families out of poverty, but it helps to maintain them there."
Barbara Pfarr, religious employers project coordinator for the National Interfaith Committee on Worker Justice, said more than 40 percent of Utahns earn less than $20,000 annually in household income. She believes that's one reason so many people turned out to participate in a conference that examined a partnership between labor and religion.
"I believe the religious community here is very interested in addressing it. . . . They're looking at some type of structure beyond food pantries and shelters. As we know, many people who use those agencies work full time," but don't make enough money to be self-sufficient.
Because churches often operate their own outreach programs, shifting focus to the root cause of poverty rather than simply handing out food and clothing makes a lot of sense, she said.
Pfarr and committee director Kim Bobo organized the meetings at the Episcopal Diocese's Jubilee Center in cooperation with several local interfaith groups and religious representatives to talk about the need for faith-based labor advocacy in Utah.
Neckel said most faiths have the kind of common values that enshrine both work and fair compensation, but few focus on the wage issues. "Every Catholic can tell you the church's position on abortion, but very few of them understand its position and teachings on the economics" of just compensation and low-income advocacy, he said.
The state's conservative politics make it that much more difficult to address labor issues, Neckel said, noting there are more than 80 cities nationwide that have some form of living wage ordinance. "Utah is the only state where that's against the law." It's the only state with a law that forbids cities, counties or municipalities from implementing a wage floor on contract work.
As a result, Neckel said he has partnered with six community-based advocacy groups, six labor unions and the non-profit Mormons for Social Equality and Justice to propose a new ordinance for contract work in Salt Lake City that can serve as a model for living wage reform. It would reward those bidding for city contracts by cutting one percent off their bid if they pay their employees at least $8.70 per hour, and take off an additional one percent for those who help their employees with health insurance coverage.
Competitive bidding means the city now selects the contractor with the lowest bid for work, thus squeezing employees' wages to make the project profitable, Neckel said.
Advocates believe the living wage strategy will ultimately "save taxpayers money and stimulate growth" by mitigating the social costs associated with poverty and raising tax revenue.
Linda Hilton of the Coalition for Religious Communities said recruiting churches to work on living wage advocacy will raise ethical and moral issues within some congregations whose own employees may not be fairly compensated or have access to benefits. "How do you go out and talk the talk when you don't walk the walk? That's the reality of what we have to start with in many faith communities."
Churches that work with large immigrant populations must also look at their philosophy of finding "any job" for their new charges, even if it doesn't pay a living wage, she said. Worker advocacy needs to become part of the equation as well.
More than 100 people turned out for Wednesday night's discussion about the challenges for low-wage workers in Utah, and another discussion of what faith traditions say about justice for workers.
Bobo, who works with communities around the country to nurture partnerships between labor unions and churches, said faith communities nationwide are beginning to understand how they can support low-income workers in their right to organize. Public protests over low wages, prayer vigils and discussion with employers about the ethics of fair compensation have all been used as effective tools in several cities, she said.
For example, a faith-based protest and prayer vigil in Chicago in support of laundry workers subjected to sweat-shop conditions eventually ended with the employer agreeing to a contract for his employees.
In looking back on the confrontation, the employer admitted that "what really got to him was all those religious people out there questioning his ethics and values. It just embarrassed him," she said.
"The involvement of the religious community is often the piece that pushes it over the edge."
E-mail: carrie@desnews.com