No Fooling: Inadequate Wages Drive Poverty Numbers

Work supports encourage labor

The Earned Income Tax Credit rewards people for working, even low-skilled workers who struggle to make life work for themselves and their families.

What follows is a conversation at the Kemp Forum on Opportunity about motivation to move toward a working life in the U. S.

All work sacred. . .Labor Day as holy day

The Most Important Part

Cashiering in a supermarket may not seem like a very rewarding position to most. But to me it is. You see, I feel that my job consists of a lot more than ringing up orders, taking people’s money, and bagging their groceries. The most important part of my job is not the obvious. Rather it’s the manner in which I present myself to others that will determine whether my customers will leave the store feeling better or worse because of their brief encounter with me. For by doing my job well, I know I have a chance to do God’s work too. Because of this, I try to make each of my customers feel special. While I’m serving them, they become the most important people in my life.

Maxine Dennis
Source: Of Human Hands (edited by Gregory F. Augustine Pierce)

Add your thoughts at inward/outward

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Great story here on Amazon's new fulfillment centers, one to open in the fall in southern Dallas.

Amazon company representatives are conducting interviews to fill 3,000 new jobs.

One of their bases of operation is here at CitySquare's Opportunity Center inside the offices of Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas. 

Good news for neighbors looking for work!

 

Just hire the guy/gal!

Great IT training options open to South Dallas-Fair Park!

Dear supporters, partners, and friends of Per Scholas:   Our first ever IT-Ready class at Per Scholas Dallas is kicking off February 23 at our new location in the CitySquare Opportunity Center.     We are seeking applicants for this exciting opportunity. Per Scholas training is offered at 100% scholarship to unemployed, under-employed, and low income adults interested in pursuing a career in IT.   What is a Per Scholas IT-Ready course? IT-Ready is an 8-week, full time, tuition-free IT training opportunity comprised of rigorous tech skills and soft-skills training essential to IT workplace success. CompTIA A+ certification prepares graduates for entry-level employment in IT in positions such as Data Center Technicians, Desktop Support Specialists, IT Support Analysts, and Network Field Technicians.. 3 out of 4 Per Scholas grads land jobs upon graduation, with an average starting salary of $30K.   Who is a good fit for Per Scholas IT-Ready? ·         someone who has a genuine interest in pursuing a career in the IT industry ·         someone who needs A+ certification to find employment ·         someone who is not afraid to work hard to accomplish a life-changing goal   To see the detailed list of requirements, see below or click here to download our flyer.      Refer today! Now is the time to apply. Interested individuals should complete our online application here. More information can be found at perscholas.org/dallas   Please forward this to anyone in your network who might be right for this program. You can also download & print the flyer below. Thank you.    Sincerely,   Billy Lane   Managing Director, Per Scholas Dallas

 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FLYER

CitySquare employment trainees experience work on The Cottages

Recently, CitySquare's Build 4 Success construction trades training program participants worked on site at The Cottages at Hickory Crossing. It was a great experience for our students, and it is great to see these 50 new homes coming out of the ground at last!

When you support CitySquare, you lift neighbors to a higher place!

Good jobs. . .in the middle

CitySquare WorkPaths has plans to move toward mid-skill development and living wage jobs.  Watch the following report and then share your reactions.

Wages, it's all about wages and labor's share

How do we explain how a place like Dallas, Texas, with its booming economy, continues to grow poorer and poorer at the bottom? 

Conventional wisdom would have us believe that a growing, vibrant economy--like we enjoy in Dallas--would begin to cut into the poverty rate in our city. 

But, it's just not happening. 

Why? 

Read on: 

Growth Has Been Good for Decades.
So Why Hasn’t Poverty Declined?

JUNE 4, 2014

 

campaign: nyt2014_sharetools_mkt_topstories_478QW -- 247890, creative: nyt2014_sharetools_mktg_topstories_478QW -- 373809, page: www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/upshot/growth-has-been-good-for-decades-so-why-hasnt-poverty-declined.html, targetedPage: www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/upshot, position: MiddleLeftThe surest way to fight poverty is to achieve stronger economic growth. That, anyway, is a view embedded in the thinking of a lot of politicians and economists.

 

“The federal government,” Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “needs to remember that the best anti-poverty program is economic growth,” which is not so different from the argument put forth by John F. Kennedy (in a somewhat different context) that “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

 

In Kennedy’s era, that had the benefit of being true. From 1959 to 1973, the nation’s economy per person grew 82 percent, and that was enough to drive the proportion of the poor population from 22 percent to 11 percent.

 

But over the last generation in the United States, that simply hasn’t happened. Growth has been pretty good, up 147 percent per capita. But rather than decline further, the poverty rate has bounced around in the 12 to 15 percent range — higher than it was even in the early 1970s. The mystery of why — and how to change that — is one of the most fundamental challenges in the nation’s fight against poverty.

 

Read the entire article here.

 

Reactions?

Just in: Employment Training Results

[Just now I received the following report on the employment progress made by our most reent graduates from our "Build4Success" construction training program.  I must say, it is very gratifying! LJ]

 

Team-

On Wednesday, May 7^,  15 students graduated from the Build4Success training.  The goals for the class: enrollment 18; graduate 15 (80% of 18); placement 13 (85% of 15). The placement update is as follows:

6-employed by CLP/TrueBlue--they started on May 14^th at $12.00 per hour

2-left the program early for employment, one is employed by Garden Ridge Distribution Center at $9.50 per hour; one is employed by On Stage at $11.00 per hour

1-is waiting for the Clinic to perform his Department of Transportation (DOT)  physical for a truck driving job. We will provide you with salary as soon as he is processed.

4 more placements are need by the end of July to meet OAI requirements for funding for 2013-2014. We are very optimistic that in the next 30 days the other 4 will be employed.

These are awesome numbers for the week after graduation. Daniel and Joe worked as a team and did an outstanding job assisting the graduates with placement assistance. If you have any questions please let me know

 Patricia Smith-Harrington

Director
WorkPaths
CitySquare

Workers lagging behind. . .millions can't "make ends meet"

Who benefits from minimum wage increase?

Interesting article from The Wall Street Journal on the benefit distribution of an increase in the minimum wage.

What's wrong with this picture?

Read more here!

Wesley, poverty and democracy

Poverty, Sanctification and the Progress of English Democracy

Larry James
United Methodist History  HX 7365, Fall 2013
Professor Tamara E. Lewis

 

From the earliest days religious societies in one expression or another provided the backbone for the Wesleyan movement to reform the Church of England and to renew the entire nation.  Regular, weekly attention to religious devotion, personal discipleship and meaningful engagement with the poor and downcast, both in and outside society membership, provided stability and purpose to these groups, as well as growth for individual members and to the expanding movement. 

                For all the argument over issues related to assurance, predestination, perseverance of the saints and other matters emerging from John Wesley’s ongoing dialogue and struggle with Calvinism and Quietism, it is my contention that service to and concern for the poor became increasingly important to  Wesley and to his understanding of the meaning and purpose of his work.  So important was this aspect of his understanding that the notion of “works of mercy” became as important a “means of grace” as were “works of piety.” It appears that as Wesley’s lifelong struggle with issues related to the assurance of salvation matured, so did his commitment to the poor deepen.  By the end of his life, Wesley had developed a profound understanding of the poor, their struggles and the forces that continued to oppress them.  While his life ended in expressed disappointment regarding the overall Methodist response to the problems associated with poverty and an adequate Christian reaction,[1] it is my contention that his work set the stage for dramatic advancements in democracy, social concern and organized labor.    

                As M. Douglas Meeks notes, it is

Wesley’s unequivocal insistence that the poor are at the heart of the evangel and that life with the poor is constitutive of Christian discipleship.  There is widespread agreement that, according to the practice of Wesley, ‘the poor in Jesus Christ’ has to do with the nature of the church and with salvation.  Wesley’s ministry with the poor included feeding, clothing, housing the poor; preparing the unemployed for work and finding them employment; visiting the poor, sick and prisoners; devising new forms of health care education and delivery for the indigent; distributing books to the needy; and raising structural questions about an economy that produced poverty.[2]

Wesley considered concern for the poor by Christian disciples as a determinative factor in the process of salvation.[3]

                Clearly, the outdoor or field-preaching that ushered in and/or accompanied revival among the people of the nation brought with it an egalitarian dimension that some found offensive.  Rev. Dr. Edmond Gibson, Bishop of London, wrote a pamphlet against both the Methodists and their “boldness to preach in the fields and other open space and inviting the rabble to be their hearers.”[4]  Wesley responded by reminding the Bishop that the reason these people stand in need of salvation is that they never came to the churches, the implication being that they were not invited or welcomed there.[5]  The Duchess of Buckingham expresses an even stronger reaction in her letter to the countess of Huntingdon, referring to the doctrines of the Methodist preachers as “most repulsive, and strongly tinctured with impertinence and disrespect towards their superiors, in perpetually endeavoring to level all ranks, and do away with all distinctions. . .. and I cannot but wonder that your ladyship should relish any sentiment so much at variance with high rank and good breeding.”[6]

                The egalitarian nature of the methods (even if unknowing) of Wesley and others who reached out so effectively to the common people of the nation would result in many unintended consequences vital to the emergence of a thoroughly democratic society.  Wesley’s account of his experience preaching on the streets and later from a hilltop at Newcastle is moving and indicative of the hunger of listeners for hope and for inclusion in the social/religious life of the community and nation.[7]

                In my view, the fact that Wesley places increasing emphasis on ministry among the poor grows out of his economic vision for the followers of Christ.  His well-known dictum—“Earn all you can.”  “Save all you can.”  “Give all you can.”--became more and more important to him as he and his movement aged.  Wesley considered a person claiming to follow Christ and, at the same time, choosing to hold onto wealth while others suffered in need, antithetical to the call of Christian self-denial and was in fact a “mortal sin.”[8]

                Wesley’s well-known claim that there is “no holiness but social holiness” indicates the importance of works of compassion and justice to the essential process of sanctification.  In “The Scripture Way of Salvation” (1765), Wesley declares, “Why that both repentance, rightly understood, and the practice of all good works, works of piety, as well as works of mercy (now properly so called, since they spring from faith) are in some sense necessary to sanctification.”[9]  He goes on,

"But what good works are those, the practice of which you affirm to be necessary to sanctification?" First, all works of piety; such as public prayer, family prayer, and praying in our closet; receiving the supper of the Lord; searching the Scriptures, by hearing, reading, meditating; and using such a measure of fasting or abstinence as our bodily health allows.

Secondly, all works of mercy; whether they relate to the bodies or souls of men; such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, entertaining the stranger, visiting those that are in prison, or sick, or variously afflicted; such as the endeavouring to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the stupid sinner, to quicken the lukewarm, to confirm the wavering, to comfort the feeble-minded, to succour the tempted, or contribute in any manner to the saving of souls from death. This is the repentance, and these the "fruits meet for repentance," which are necessary to full sanctification. This is the way wherein God hath appointed His children to wait for complete salvation.[10]

From the beginning of his work in and with religious societies, and building on the history of the varieties of such organizations, Wesley included work among the poor as a vital part of his response to his experience of justification.  How seriously he took these concerns can be seen in how hard he and his followers worked to build institutional or organizational “structures”(to borrow a term from Randy L. Maddox)  to ensure that the poor were served by the sanctifying activities of the believers.[11]  It is equally clear that over time Wesley’s efforts among the poor moved beyond simple acts of charity to include empowerment strategies such as schools for poor children, employment programs, loan funds and even parish-based wellness efforts stemming from his rather innovative pharmacy work. 

                Wesley’s attitude toward the poor included an unique sensitivity as to how Christian acts of compassion, charity and justice would affect those served.[12]  Wesley evidences a social understanding well beyond his times when he defends the poor against the charge that their poverty is the result of their unwillingness to work.  The following journal entry in February 1753 reflects Wesley’s heart and understanding:

Thursday, 8 . . . In the afternoon I visited many of the sick; but such scenes, who could see unmoved?  There are none such to be found in a pagan country. If any of the Indians in Georgia were sick (which indeed exceeding rarely happened till they learned gluttony and drunkenness

from the Christians), those that were near him gave him whatever he wanted. Oh, who will
convert the English into honest heathens!   On Friday and Saturday I visited as many more as I could. I found some in their cells underground; others in their garrets, half-starved both with cold and hunger, added to weakness and pain. But I found not one of the unemployed who was able to crawl about the room. So wickedly, devilishly false is that common objection, “They are poor only because they are idle.” If you saw these things with your own eyes, could you lay out money in ornaments

or superfluities?[13]

                While Wesley’s vision of a reformed church and a renewed nation through the work of the Methodists did not materialize, I contend that the movement he helped create and led resulted in the planting of important, revolutionary seeds that bloomed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  Ironically, his social teaching did not result in what he had hoped for during his day.  However, Methodist social doctrine informed the creation of a new, robust form of social democracy that took seriously the needs of its people in ways the church could not imagine.  Further, while not thoroughly radical, Wesley’s work, and especially the organizational strategies of the societies, served very well the rise of labor in response to the Industrial Revolution in England.             

With this in mind, I’ll conclude with a description of the work of the “Sheffield Society,” one of the many more radical labor groups that began appearing on the English social, economic, political landscape toward the end of the 18th century.  Reported by noted, Marxist historian, E. P. Thompson, who regarded Methodism as an overall hindrance to social resistance;  notwithstanding, I find the passage clearly connected to the influence and form of the Wesley societies:

The Sheffield Society originated . . . from a gathering of “five or six mechanics. . . conversing about the enormous high price of provisions.”  It grew so rapidly that by January 1792, it comprised eight societies “which meet each at their different houses, all on the same evening.”  “None are admitted without a ticket . . . and perfect regular good order kept up.”  The societies met fortnightly, the General Meeting, “at which some hundreds attend,” monthly.  There were 1,400 subscribers to a pamphlet edition . . .of the First Part of Rights of Man, which was read with avidity in many of the workshops of Sheffield.”  In Mach 1792, after four months in existence, the society claimed nearly 2,000 members.  In May a new method of organization was adopted:  dividing them into small bodies or meetings of ten persons each, and then ten to appoint a delegate:  Ten of these delegates form another meeting, and so on . . . till at last are reduced to a proper number for constituting the Committee or Grand Council.[14]

---

[1] John Wesley, “Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity,” in John Wesley’s Sermons:  An Anthology. Edited by Albert C. Outler nad Richard P. Heitzenrater, Nashville:  Abingdon Press, 1991, pp. 550-557.

[2] M. Douglas Meeks, “On Reading Wesley with the Poor,  The Portion of the Poor, pp. 9-10.

[3] Meeks, p. 11.

[4] “Chapter IX, Society and Class,” John Wesley the Methodist, The Wesley Center Online, p. 3.

[5] “Chapter IX, Society and Class,” p. 3.

[6] Donald W. Dayton, “Liberation Theology in the Wesleyan and Holiness Tradition.” On Public Theology website (http://www.pubtheo.com/page.asp?pid=111), p. 5.

[7] “Chapter IX, Society and Class,” p. 4.

[8] Randy L. Maddox, “’Visit the Poor’ John Wesley, the Poor, and the Sanctification of Believers,” in The Wesleys and the Poor:  The Legacy and Development of Methodist Attitudes to Poverty, 1729-1999.  Edited by Richard Heitzenrater, Nashville, TN:  Kingswood Books, 2002,  p. 62

[9] John Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” in John Wesley’s Sermons: An Anthology.  Edited by Albert C. Outler and Richard P. Heitzenrater, Nashville:  Abingdon Press, 1991, p. 377; and  Randy L. Maddox, “’Visit the Poor’ John Wesley, the Poor, and the Sanctification of Believers,” p. 65.

[10] John Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” p. 378.

[11]Randy L. Maddox, “’Visit the Poor’ John Wesley, the Poor, and the Sanctification of Believers,” p. 66.

[12] Randy L. Maddox, “’Visit the Poor’ John Wesley, the Poor, and the Sanctification of Believers,” p. 75.

 

[13]The Journal of John Wesley, edited by Percy Livingstone Parker, Chicago:  Moody Press, 1951, pp. 205-206,  Randy L. Maddox, “’Visit the Poor’ John Wesley, the Poor, and the Sanctification of Believers,” p. 75.

 

[14] E. P. Thompson, The making of the English working class, New York:  Vintage Books, 1963, pp. 149-150.

 

 

 

 

 

Adjusting the effective minimum wage that YOU pay. . .

I've tried to imagine what it would be like to attempt to build a life on the earnings of the current, national minimum wage which is $7.25 an hour.  No matter how you slice the challenge, providing the necessary support for a family or even for an individual while earning at the minimum is impossible.

Every few years we debate the issue in an attempt to adjust the baseline upward.  The debate is so predictable that I'm not going to outline it here again.

I've got a better idea.  Let's have the debate.  Let's raise the minimum to a more appropriate level (Australia's minimum wage is $15.96).

But let's do something today about the low reward for labor among the poorest of our friends.

Here's my suggestion:  wherever possible, when you purchase goods and services, calculate the value of the labor expended to bring you what you value enough to purchase.  Once you've thought through this value proposition, pay off the unrewarded "value wage" of your transaction.  In many retail settings this won't be possible or even necessary.  But in many situations your "wage supplement," some will call it a "tip," can be determined and passed along with gratitude and affirmation of the worker who meets your needs.  We say that we value labor.  We want people to work, right?  But how much do we really value labor?

For example, waiters usually earn minimum wage or less and count on gratuities to fill the wage gap.  But there are many other places where I can adjust the minimum wage that I am willing to pay based on what the goods or services mean to me.  How much do I value what is delivered to me?

Earlier this week I took my car to the tire shop for the repair of what was becoming a flat tire.  In East Dallas at Carroll and I-30 you can get your tire repaired for $10.  The afternoon was blazing hot.  The young man who repaired my tire worked hard at the task at hand.  He took pains to remove what appeared to be a fiberglass chard from the tire, allowing me to inspect the reason my tire was on the way down.

As he worked, I began to calculate the cost of his labor to his employer.  With a unit of service in my case  costing $10, I thought of the value that I placed on the service and the delivered product.  I came up with a number well above the set price.

My equation was simple:  set unit value + time required to deliver service + quality of service delivered + overall satisfaction with the service + what the service meant to me in terms of my need = value added gratuity or "wage adjustment."

Bottom line:  I adjusted this young man's wage for my transaction.

While this doesn't solve the problem or move forward a solution to scale, it does provide me a meaningful way to do my part in engaging my economy for the sake of fairness and equity.  By treating a worker at a time with fairness and equity, I proactively recognize the value provided by the working people who meet my many needs.

You can adjust the minimum wage paid laboring people today.  Give it a try.  I can tell you it definitely builds community and inspires working people.

Employment for crew hired off "the Corner"!

I love this photo!

Jerry James (shown here on one knee in front) serves as the "foreman" for our landscape crew.

We hired each of these folks off of "the Corner" where we show up on Thursdays for refreshments, conversation and friendship creation.

Jerry comes from a tough background himself that includes time behind bars.  He works as hard as anyone I've ever known.  His crew follows his lead.

This group of formerly unemployed, homeless persons executed the landscape plan for the Opportunity Center that CitySquare is building at the corner of Malcolm X and I-30.

What you see here is a moment in time on a pathway to renewal and transformation.

This is our work.

Out of poverty via hard work? Not so fast, buddy!

[We've always thought that the way out of poverty is hard work.  Not so fast there.  The way out of poverty is hard work at a living wage job.  Those jobs aren't nearly as available as many of us surmise.  In fact, more and more people are working hard and slipping deeper into poverty.  It's more accurate to say that the way out of poverty is two, full-time jobs!  Read the following report.  You'll see what I mean. LJ]

McDonald's Can't Figure Out How Its Workers Survive on Minimum Wage
JORDAN WEISSMANNJUL

In a financial planning guide for its workers, the company accidentally illustrates precisely how impossible it is to scrape by on a fast food paycheck.

 Well this is both embarrassing and deeply telling. In what appears to have been a gesture of goodwill gone haywire, McDonald's recently teamed up with Visa to create a financial planning site for its low-pay workforce. Unfortunately, whoever wrote the thing seems to have been literally incapable of imagining of how a fast food employee could survive on a minimum wage income.

As ThinkProgress and other outlets have reported, the site includes a sample budget that, among other laughable assumptions, presumes that workers will have a second job.

Read the entire report here. 

CitySquare WorkPaths: Drive2Success

WorkPaths: Path2Success

Workforce training at CitySquare

CitySquare’s WorkPaths is now enrolling for our 3 training programs. WorkPaths equips low-income adults with hard and soft skills through intensive CitySquare’s WorkPaths is now enrolling for our 3 training programs (please see attached flier for more detail) WorkPaths equips low-income adults with hard and soft skills through intensive pre-employment training programs designed to increase functional skill levels—enhancing employment ability to continue with additional training or education toward a living-wage job offering a career path and benefits.  All classes are at no out of pocket expense and DART transportation assistance is provided.

WorkPaths offers 3 training paths:

•Build4Success – 12-week program in commercial construction and environmental remediation made possible by partnership with OAI, Inc. Build4Success includes fundamentals in electrical, plumbing, welding, blueprint reading, and basic carpentry, as well as “workplace” life/soft skills such as positive communication in the workplace and how to be a great employee. OSHA 30, HAZWOWPER 40, Lead, Mold, Asbestos Worker Training and First Aid/CPR/AED are also part of coursework.

•Path2Success - a 10-week computer and business fundamentals program, is designed to equip participants with computer competencies in Microsoft Office's Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook and Explorer. The training is made possible in part by a grant from Microsoft and in partnership with Bill J. Priest/El Centro College.

After graduation, WorkPaths’ staff members continue to work with program graduates to resolve outstanding "life" issues hindering individuals from getting and keeping a good job. WorkPaths’ staff interfaces with employers of program graduates to monitor their progress and works with the employer to address any issues that may arise. Post graduate training continues through CareerPaths, a post-graduate program employing job matching, until successful employment is achieved in order to continue to strengthen employability skills.

•Drive2Success - 9 month long program designed to train individuals in different aspects of the auto body industry. If you are accepted into the program you will take classes such as Basic Metal Repair, Basic Refinishing, Color Analysis and Paint Matching. There are also classes in Collision Repair Welding, Damage Repair and a host of other classes designed to help you become an auto body professional.

Please feel free to call our offices at 214-823-4409.  Please forward to your email contacts and other service providers who could benefit from what we are now offering!!!